No. 18 Marquette Hosts DePaul Friday; Travels to RV Northern Iowa Sunday

MILWAUKEE – The No. 18 Marquette women's volleyball team looks to continue its seven-game winning streak this week, hosting DePaul Friday night at 7 p.m. CT, and making the trek to Cedar Falls, Iowa to take on RV Northern Iowa on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT.

The Golden Eagles (17-4, 8-1 BIG EAST) are looking to keep the ball rolling after a 3-0 sweep against both Seton Hall on Saturday and St. John's on Sunday. Marquette has now won 21 consecutive sets, which is a Marquette program record. Junior Allie Barber led both games in kills, notching 15 against the Pirates and 16 against the Red Storm.

Senior Anna Haak collected her fourth and fifth double-doubles of the season in the East Coast swing (14 kills, 12 digs against Seton Hall; 12 kills, 15 digs against St. John's).

Redshirt senior Jenna Rosenthal achieved her 1,000th career kill in the match against St. John's on Sunday, tallying seven kills in both contests.

WHERE TO WATCH/FOLLOW THE ACTION

LIVE STATS: DePaul: https://gomarquette.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
Northern Iowa: https://unipanthers.com/sidearmstats/wvball

WATCH: DePaul: https://gomarquette.com/watch/?Live=24&type=Live
Northern Iowa: http://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=41834f53-9e31-419e-ac8c-fda4371cb553

OPPONENTS

DePaul (5-15, 3-6): The Blue Demons fell in a hard fought, 2-3 loss to St. John's last Sunday. DePaul was led by Emma Price with 16 kills, and Avarie Evans-Allen and Mattie Norris both notching 10 kills. Evans-Allen also led the match with seven blocks on the evening.
Marquette owns a 32-29 record all-time against the Blue Demons, including a 3-0 sweep just two weekends ago.

Northern Iowa (15-6, 9-0): The Panthers are on a nine-game winning streak, acquiring their last victory against Missouri State last Saturday. UNI was led by Piper Thomas with 22 kills, as Jaydlin Seehase and Karlie Taylor added to the effort with 21 and 16 kills, respectively.
Northern Iowa has not yet been defeated this season in Missouri Valley Conference game play.
The Panthers are currently the highest in the Valley in both kills per set (14.89) and assists per set (14). Sophomore Karlie Taylor also holds a league-high 4.78 kills per set.
UNI owns a 4-2 record in the all-time series, but Marquette won the last meeting, 3-2 in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

WHAT THE TEAM IS SAYING:
On seeing DePaul so soon…
"We have a fun weekend ahead. We just saw DePaul two weeks ago and we will have to keep pressure on them from the service line to make their offense a little more predictable."
On traveling to Northern Iowa…
"Northern Iowa is a veteran team that doesn't get rattled easily, especially at home. Like us they are fighting to try and be a seeded team come NCAA time, so we will have our hands full."
-Ryan Theis
Head Coach

STORYLINES:

Marquette is on a seven-game win streak since falling at No. 10 Creighton on Sept. 23. Each win has occurred in straight sets and the most recent victory was against St. John's on Sunday, October 14. The 21 consecutive sets won is a Marquette program record.
Marquette moved up to No. 18 in this week's AVCA Coaches Poll, a best for the Golden Eagles volleyball program. The Golden Eagles entered the AVCA Coaches Poll at No. 25 in week two after being the unofficial 26th team to open the 2018 campaign. MU is ranked for the first time since 2013.
RPI watch…The Golden Eagles own an RPI of 23 in the latest rankings after entering at No. 13. MU's four losses on the season come against No. 2 BYU, No. 9 Wisconsin, No. 19 Baylor and No. 21 Creighton. Creighton has moved up to the 20th spot in front of Marquette.
Sophomore Martha Konovodoff was selected as BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season, while senior Anna Haak was selected to her first BIG EAST weekly honor roll after averaging over 4.00 in both kills and digs per set last weekend.
Redshirt senior Jenna Rosenthal tallied her 1,000th career kill in the match against St. John's ending the contest at 1,006. She joins Allie Barber as the two Marquette players to reach 1,000 career kills this season.
Rosenthal became Marquette's all-time leader in assisted blocks in the match against Georgetown on Sept. 28. She owns 431 career assisted blocks and topped the record of 412 that Meghan Nieman set from 2013-2016. Rosenthal is also Marquette's all-time leader in total blocks with 483 currently having recently broken another of Niemann's records.
Allie Barber reached a milestone of 1,000 career kills against Villanova on Saturday, Sept. 29. The junior now owns 1,077 kills. The all-time leader for the Golden Eagles is Theresa Coughlin with 1,733 total kills from 2002-06.
Head coach Ryan Theis picked up his 100th Marquette victory in a 3-0 sweep over Illinois State on September 15. He is in his fifth season at the helm of the Golden Eagles.
Marquette defeated then-No. 10 USC in its homeopener in a five-set thriller. It was just the third victory over a top-10 opponent in the program's history, but the fourth straight season that MU defeated a ranked opponent.
The Golden Eagles lead the league and rank sixth in the NCAA with 14.79 kills per contest, paced by 4.59 per frame from Barber, which leads the BIG EAST and ranks 12th in the NCAA.
Rosenthal and Barber boast stellar hitting percentages at .365 and .354, respectively through the 19 games of the season, helping propel the Golden Eagles to a .277 average combined, which is tops in the league and 14^th nationally. Rosenthal's mark is 50th in the NCAA.
The Golden Eagles also reign supreme in handing out the ball. Running a 6-2 offense this season, junior Lauren Speckman and sophomore Sarah Rose primarily share setting duties. MU is dishing out 13.76 assists per set, which also leads the BIG EAST and is ninth among NCAA Division I schools. Speckman averages 7.18 assists per contest, while Rose is handing out 4.98.
Marquette has had a player record a double-double on 12 occasions this season. Anna Haak leads the squad with five double-doubles, while Speckman and sophomore Sarah Rose have three. Sophomore Hope Werch has recorded one double-double.
This is the 43^rd season of Marquette volleyball and the program is 757-694-5 all-time.

The Golden Eagles were picked to win the BIG EAST, earning six first-place votes. This is the first time MU has been selected to win the league.
Allie Barber was tabbed as BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year, while Jenna Rosenthal and Hope Werch were selected to the preseason squad.