Golden Eagles Sweep St. John's, 3-0

Oct. 11, 2009

QUEENS, N.Y. - The Marquette University women's volleyball squad swept St. John's, 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-12), Sunday afternoon in newly renovated Carnesecca Arena.

The Golden Eagles (12-8, 2-4 BIG EAST) were led by sophomore Ashley Beyer with 16 kills, five digs and four aces. Junior Rabbecka Gonyo also chipped in eight kills on a hitting percentage of .800 (8-0-10) with four blocks.

Marquette trailed for most of the first set before gaining its first lead of the frame at 22-21 on a service ace by Beyer. St. John's rallied to tie the set at 22-22 and 23-23 before a kill by Ciara Jones and a block by Holly Mertens, Kelsey Mattai and Jones closed out the stanza. The Golden Eagles hit .361 (15-2-36) in the first and were led by Beyer's five kills and four each from Gonyo and Jones.

The Golden Eagles continued their solid hitting in the second set by recording an attack percentage of .393 (14-3-28). St. John's scored first in the second, but MU controlled play for much of the set. A Kelsey Warner ace in the middle of the Red Storm defenders pulled the Golden Eagles ahead 13-10, causing St. John's head coach Joanne Persico to use her second timeout. Two more aces by Warner closed out the scoring in the second with MU taking a 25-20 victory. Beyer once again led the squad with six kills.

The third set was dominated by the Golden Eagles as MU took the frame 25-12. With Marquette up 13-5, St. John's used its first timeout and could not recover as two aces by Jones out of the timeout pulled MU up by 10.

The Golden Eagles return to action Friday at the Al McGuire Center against Georgetown at 6 p.m. The match will be streamed live on GoMarquette.com's All-Access player for those unable to attend. Basketball's Marquette Madness festivities will follow Friday's match.