MU Bests Xavier, 3-1 on the Road

Sept. 27, 2017

CINCINNATI -- The Marquette women's volleyball team extended its win-streak to five matches as the Golden Eagles earned a 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-13) win at Xavier on Wednesday night.

Sophomore Allie Barber led the Golden Eagles (10-5, 4-0) with a match-high 23 kills and hit .377, while junior Anna Haak and freshman Hope Werch each connected on 10 kills, while Werch recorded 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.

Sophomore Lauren Speckman dished out 51 assists, which was her fifth match with 50-or-more assists this season, while Martha Konovodoff collected 24 digs, narrowly missing a career-best. "I was happy to see us dig out of a hole tonight," head coach Ryan Theis said. "It is a credit to Xavier for coming out and beating us in almost every phase of the game. "I think in the middle of set two our passing game got going and our hitters' confidence started to build. We had all five hitters going about midway through the second set and then we were a lot to handle."

After dropping the first set to the Musketeers (6-10, 1-2), 25-20, Marquette bounced back in the second, overcoming a deficit in the middle and was able to pull a 25-22 victory. The third set was close through the beginning until the Golden Eagles broke a 12-12 tie with a 5-1 run and held an 18-14 lead after Jenna Rosenthal nailed a kill. Werch and Haak helped close out the set with a pair of kills, 25-19.

The fourth and final frame was all Golden Eagles as the squad bounded into a 7-1 advantage on serving from Rosenthal and held a 20-10 lead after Barber connected on a kill. MU took a final score of 25-13 to win the math in four sets.

As a team the Golden eagles combined to hit .319, while Xavier hit .234 led by Maya Krause with 14 kills.

Marquette will return to Milwaukee and host league travel partner DePaul on Saturday, Sept. 30 at 6 p.m. CT.