Marquette University Athletics
Volleyball Advances to C-USA Championship
11/21/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Volleyball downs Cincinnati, 3-1, behind 18 kills from Theresa Coughlin
Recap | Box Score
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. ? Marquette advanced to its first Conference USA Championship match with a 3-1 (30-15, 30-27, 25-30, 30-25) win over Cincinnati. The Golden Eagles will meet top-seed Louisville in the C-USA championship match, scheduled for Monday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. EST. The match will air locally on WMLW-Ch. 41 and will air nationally on College Sports TV.
Junior outside hitter Theresa Coughlin led Marquette with a double double of 18 kills and 16 digs. Sophomore outside hitter Jamie Mueller added 16 kills. Freshman outside hitter Kimberley Todd and senior middle blocker Erica Heisser each landed 10 kills.
?We took it to a new level of play, even from last night,? head coach Pati Rolf said. ?We keep improving. Everybody has brought their best game at the same time. This was a total team effort.?
Marquette (22-6) jumped out to a 2-0 lead after taking game one in convincing fashion by 15 points. Marquette started strong, logging 16 kills and a 29.4 attack percentage in the first frame. The MU defense held Cincinnati to just eight kills in game one, limiting C-USA Player-of-the-Year Julie DuPont to a pair of kills in the frame.
The Golden Eagles had a significant lead in the second game before Cincinnati (21-10) responded. Marquette owned a 22-17 lead before Cincinnati responded to cut the MU lead to 23-22. Marquette never relinquished the lead and a pair of kills from each from Coughlin and Mueller helped close out the game.
Cincinnati claimed the third game, 30-25, to make the contest interesting. The Bearcats hit 22.2 percent and had 18 kills in to force a fourth game.
The Bearcats kept the game close, tying twice at 20-20 and 23-23, but Marquette never trailed in the final frame. Marquette closed out the game on a 10-5 run, fuelled by three kills from Coughlin to claim the match.
Marquette won the match despite DuPont having 22 kills. The Golden Eagles silenced some of the Cincinnati attack with 17.5 blocks, led by eight from freshman middle blocker Jenn Brown.
?We decided to play our game and not worry about what she was going to do,? Rolf said. ?We played disciplined volleyball and that made a huge difference. DuPont is very much the C-USA Player-of-the-Year, but we just took care of what we needed to do.?
Marquette?s appearance in the C-USA Championship match is the first in school history.
?Playing Louisville will be interesting,? Rolf said. ?They are well-balanced team and are a big team, but we?re deep and strong and a great serving team. I know we have more in us and I hope we bring it all tomorrow.?
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