Marquette University Athletics
Marquette Volleyball Visits DePaul
11/14/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Match Information
The Marquette Volleyball team closes out its regular season with a match at C-USA rival DePaul on Friday, November 14. Marquette is currently in the midst of a six-match winning streak, the longest for the program since a ten-match run early in 1997. The unbeaten streak also represents the longest in the tenure of Head Coach Pati Rolf. The Friday night match against DePaul may be a preview of things to come. If the current C-USA standings hold through the last weekend of play, the Golden Eagles and Blue Demons would match-up in the opening round of the C-USA Championship, in New Orleans.
The Coaches
The Golden Eagles are led by Head Coach Pati Rolf (North Dakota State, ?92). She sports a 24-31 career effort at Marquette over two years. For her 16-year career, Rolf has compiled a 334-200 record, for a .623 winning percentage. Only the third coach in Marquette?s 29-year program, Rolf brings a successful resume with her, having recorded a 310-169 mark at Minnesota Duluth. Rounding out the Golden Eagle coaching staff are second-year assistants Amy Lee (Wisconsin, ?98) and Todd Nelson (Minnesota Duluth, ?98).
Leading DePaul for the seventh season is Dawn Dockstader (Montana Tech, ?88). Her record with the Blue Demons, as well as her career is 100-121. Prior to taking the reins at DePaul, Dockstader was Associate Head Coach at Valparaiso. Before heading to Valpo, she was an assistant with Central Michigan. Dockstader is assisted by Julie Wiejak, Phillip Wantoch and Katie Engel.
Team Capsules
Marquette enters its final C-USA contest of 2003 with a record of 11-15, 7-5 in C-USA competition. Last weekend, the Golden Eagles beat USF in five games, before knocking off UAB on Senior Night at the Marquette Gym. With the pair of wins last weekend, MU wrapped up its home conference slate with a record of 5-1. Tuesday night, MU knocked off in-state rival UW-Green Bay 3-0, to close the team?s matches at the Marquette Gym. Next year, the Golden Eagles move their operations to the newly-opened Al McGuire Center.
USF took Marquette to its seventh five-game match of the season, but recent experience paid off, as the Golden Eagles came back from a 2-0 games deficit to win 14-30, 27-30, 30-24, 30-26, 16-14. MU was led by sophomore Theresa Coughlin?s 21 kills and junior Erin Freer?s 19 kills. Combined, the outside hitters accounted for more than half of Marquette?s 79 kills. While the outsides provided the offense, the defense was solid up the middle, as senior Ann Lopata and sophomore Erica Heisser each chipped in three total blocks, while junior Sarah Vernon (12 digs) and sophomore Caitie O?Brien (10 digs) covered the rest of the court.
The Golden Eagles wrapped up their home conference schedule with a 30-19, 25-30, 30-25, 30-24 Saturday Senior Night win against UAB. Ann Lopata led MU with a .386 hitting average (16 kills on 28 attacks, only five errors). Lopata?s 16 kills were second only to Coughlin?s 17 finishes. Senior Captain Gemma Greer provided her second consecutive 50+ assist night, while matching her career-best in aces with four in the first game against the Blazers. With her first assist of the night, Greer passed the 1,000 assist mark on the season, for the third straight year.
Tuesday night, Marquette overcame early mental errors against UW-Green Bay to get their first sweep since an Oct. 11 tangle with Charlotte. Leading the way for Marquette were Coughlin (16 kills), Aga Niemcezewska and Heisser (nine kills each). Marquette also got solid middle play out of Lopata (nine kills on .318 hitting) and a great all-around effort from Freer (eight kills, eight digs).
Marquette is led offensively by Coughlin?s 4.20 kpg. Lopata (2.85 kpg), Freer (2.86 kpg) and Heisser (2.21 kpg) add depth to the MU attack, which is run by Greer (12.24 apg). Defensively, the Golden Eagles feature five players who average more than two digs per game. They are Freer (3.54 dpg), freshman Jamie Mueller (3.11 dpg), O?Brien (2.53 dpg), Greer (2.23 dpg) and Vernon (2.18 dpg).
The Blue Demons are led by Mandy Moorberg (3.52 kpg) and Janet Cotter (3.35 kpg), with Amie West distributing the ball for the offense. The defensive side of the net is led up-front by Lara Marks (139 total blocks) and Janet Goreham (105 total blcks). Five Blue Demons have reached triple-figures in digs this year: Amy Holmes (354), Ellen Hayes (348), Cotter (342), West (295), and Moorberg (281).
DePaul is trying to bounce back to clinch a position in the C-USA Championship. The Blue Demons may still get in with a loss to Marquette, but a win would eliminate any uncertainty. DePaul failed to wrap up a berth last weekend, when they dropped back-to-back matches to UAB and USF.
The Blue Demons thoroughly dominated UAB, but managed to lose in four games. DePaul out-played UAB in every statistical category, save one. Double-digit kill performances by Goreham (19), Moorberg (14), Cotter (14) and Marks (11) were not enough to erase a 13-2 Blazer advantage in service aces.
Saturday night proved no better for DePaul, as they were outblocked 13-5 en route to a 3-0 defeat against USF. Moorberg was the only Blue Demon to break double-figures in kills, with 19.
Setting the Table
With 1,095 assists on the season, senior captain Gemma Greer has reached quadruple-figures on the for the third consecutive year. She currently stands second on the career charts for MU setters, with 4,185. That is second only to Liz Egasti?s 5,180. Egasti is currently the only other Golden Eagle to have recorded three straight seasons of 1,000 or more assists.
Digging In
With 13 digs against UAB, junior Erin Freer passed the 900-dig plateau for her career. The junior outside hitter?s current total of 929 digs ranks her seventh on the Marquette charts, and this season?s total of 362 digs stands fifth in the single-season record books. With 13 digs against the Blue Demons, Freer will surpass Keelyn Krill?s mark of 375 during the 1995 season.
1-800-THERESA
Sophomore Theresa Coughlin has tallied 815 kills in just under two seasons of offense. With a team-high 16 kills against UW-Green Bay, she cracked the career top ten chart. To date, she has 436 kills on the season (the fourth-best season of kills in program history). Adding that to her freshman total of 379 kills, she stands 126 kills shy of the number 9 spot on the career list.
Ann?s Accuracy
Senior Ann Lopata is virtually guaranteed of a spot among Marquette?s most efficient attackers (career). With a hitting average over two seasons of .216, she currently stands eighth on the career charts. To get an idea of how solid her spot in the top ten is, imagine this: it would take 49 consecutive attack errors to drop out.
20-20 Vision
Twice this season, Golden Eagles have attained 20 kills and 20 digs in the same match. Freshman Jamie Mueller first accomplished the feat in a 3-2 win at Duke (8/30/03) with 22 kills and 21 digs. Most recently, junior Erin Freer notched 21 kills and 20 digs in a 2-3 loss against Memphis (10/24/03).
Getting Defensive
The Golden Eagles currently rank third in C-USA in digs per game, at 16.83. Only Tulane (18.11) and DePaul (16.90) can boast of better floor coverage.
Eagles? Efficiency
Senior Ann Lopata?s .706 hitting average against Charlotte (10/10/03) marks the seventh most efficient performance by a C-USA individual this season, and the second-best performance in a C-USA game. With 12 kills and no errors over 17 total attacks, Lopata dominated the middle in a Marquette sweep of the 49ers.
Digging at Duke
Junior Erin Freer?s 33 digs at Duke is top defensive performance by any C-USA individual this season.
Killing the Ball
Marquette holds two team highs, versus the rest of C-USA. With 95 kills in 275 attemps in five-game win at Duke (08/30/03), the Golden Eagles gave the top performance in those team categories for the season. MU also has the second highest kill total of any C-USA team this season, with 84 at Houston (10/31/03). The Golden Eagles hae also left their mark on the assist charts, as MU holds the top two spots in assists with 82 at Duke and 78 at Dayton (09/05/03).
C-USA Individual Rankings
Three Golden Eagles have compiled statistics that rank in the top ten of individual performers in C-USA this season. They are Gemma Greer (4th in setting with 12.10 apg), Erin Freer (4th in defense with 3.48 dpg) and Theresa Coughlin (5th in attacking with 4.23 kpg and 10th in points (4.63 ppg).
The Longer, the Better
The Golden Eagles are one of two C-USA schools (with Louisville) whose winning percentage gets progressively better the longer the match goes. Below are the by-game match records for Marquette and DePaul
Team 3 games 4 games 5 games Overall
DePaul 6-5 3-9 2-4 11-18
Marquette 2-6 5-6 4-3 11-15
