Volleyball Wins at Seton Hall, 3-0

Nov. 10, 2006

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - In its final tune-up before the BIG EAST Tournament, the Marquette volleyball team defeated Seton Hall (15-14, 4-9), 3-0 (30-28, 32-30, 30-26), Friday evening at Walsh Gymnasium in South Orange, N.J. Senior Jamie Mueller tallied 11 kills in the match to become the ninth player in school history to reach the 1,000-kill mark. The outside hitter also became the first-student athlete in Marquette history to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career. With the victory, the Golden Eagles (15-12, 10-4) secured one of the top-six seeds in the tournament and will now await the results of Sunday's matches for their official seed and opponent to be determined.

"We had a really good night on defense," said junior Monica Renfrow. "We really wanted to focus on that tonight. Lauren (Pierce) had an excellent night on defense and we all came together as a team. Seton Hall is a good team. They hit some shots that we will see from other teams in the tournament. Now we have three big days of hard work ahead of us to get ready to take on who ever we are paired with."

Pierce finished with 10 digs in the match.

Seton Hall began game one scoring six of the first nine points. After increasing its lead to four at 10-6, Marquette cut its deficit to one at 10-9 on blocks by Mueller and junior Jenn Brown. The Pirates answered, increasing their lead back to four at 14-10. The Golden Eagles slowly chipped away at the lead before tying the score at 25-25 on a kill by junior Kimberley Todd. With the score still tied 28-28, Mueller tallied back-to-back kills as MU won the first frame, 30-28.

Marquette jumped out to a 9-5 lead in game two before going up six at 15-9 on an ace by senior Nicole Wallace. The Golden Eagles remained in control of the game, up 29-24, until the Pirates tallied six-straight points to take a 30-29 lead. Two errors by Seton Hall gave Marquette back the lead at 31-30, and then a kill by Todd thwarted the Pirate comeback as the Golden Eagles took game two, 32-30.

Seton Hall started game three with a 5-2 lead, but was tied quickly at 6-6 by Marquette. The teams remained within points of each other until tied at 23-23, the Golden Eagles went on a 4-0 thanks to two kills by Mueller to take a 27-23 lead. After trading points, freshman Katie Vancura tallied the match's final kill for MU as it won 30-26.

Freshman Leslie Bielski had a tremendous match for Marquette in its final contest before the BIG EAST Tournament as she tallied 13 kills along with a 45.8 hitting percentage. Todd added 17 kills and Renfrow recorded 45 assists. Brown finished the match with seven assisted blocks.