No. 19 Golden Eagles Host Xavier Wednesday for Field Trip Day

MILWAUKEE – The No. 19 Marquette women's volleyball team will host Xavier on Wednesday morning for a Kid's Day match at 11:30 a.m. CT.

The Golden Eagles (12-4, 3-1 BIG EAST) are coming off consecutive sweeps of Georgetown and Villanova this weekend. Marquette's lone BIG EAST loss comes at No. 10 Creighton. Marquette has continually climbed in the polls since entering at No. 25 in week two.

Junior Allie Barber reached a career milestone of 1,000 kills in the second ser against Villanova, finishing the night with 1,005. Friday night, redshirt senior Jenna Rosenthal broke the Marquette record for assisted blocks against Georgetown.

The match will stream live and for free at GoMarquette.com.

WHERE TO WATCH/FOLLOW THE ACTION
WATCH LIVE: https://gomarquette.com/watch/?Live=20&type=Live

LIVE STATS: https://gomarquette.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary

PROMOS
WEDNESDAY vs. Xavier- Join us for Kid's Day / Field Trip Day.

OPPONENT

Xavier (4-11, 2-2): Most recently, the Musketeers have fallen in three sets to No. 10 Creighton. Senior Laura Grossman, the outside hitter from San Juan, Puerto Rico leads Xavier in kills with an average of 2.82 kills per set. Senior Meredith Klare had a team-high 15 digs against the Bluejays. The libero now has 1,690 career digs, 38 digs shy of moving into second place all-time at Xavier in career digs.

Marquette won both meetings in 2017 and owns a 12-9 record all-time against the Musketeers.

STORYLINES:

Marquette moved up one spot to No. 19 in this week's AVCA Coaches Poll, setting a new highest-ever ranking in program history. 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 enter the first official RPI 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.
Redshirt senior Jenna Rosenthal became Marquette's all-time leader in assisted blocks in the match against Georgetown. She owns 416 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 468 currently having recently broken another of Niemann's records.
Allie Barber reached a milestone of 1,000 career kills against Villanova on Saturday. The junior now owns 1,005 kills. The all-time leader for the Golden Eagles is Theresa Coughlin with 1,733 total kills from 2002-06.
Barber was tabbed as BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season, while sophomore Martha Konovodoff was named to the honor roll for the third time this season. Barber averaged 4.67 kills per set and hit at a .397 in MU's two wins last week. Konovodoff averaged 5.00 digs per contest and had five service aces.
The Golden Eagles entered their 14th season of BIG EAST competition last weekend and own an 9-5 record in league lidlifters, including a 3-2 mark under head coach Ryan Theis.
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 also lead the league in kills and rank 13th nationally with 14.36 per contest, paced by 4.53 per frame from Barber, which leads the BIG EAST and ranks 14th in the NCAA.
Junior Allie Barber and redshirt senior Jenna Rosenthal boast stellar hitting percentages at .343 and .337, respectively through the 22 games of the season, helping propel the Golden Eagles to a .261 average combined, which is tops in the league.
Marquette has had a player record a double-double on eight occasions this season. Speckman and sophomore Sarah Rose have three, while senior Anna Haak has tallied two. Hope Werch has recorded one double-double.
This is the 43^rd season of Marquette volleyball and the program is 753-694-5 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.