No. 19 Marquette Travels to DePaul Saturday

MILWAUKEE – The No. 19 Marquette women's volleyball team will make the short trip on I-94 to BIG EAST travel partner DePaul on Saturday, Oct. 6 for a match at 12:00 p.m. CT.

The Golden Eagles (13-4, 4-1 BIG EAST) are coming off consecutive sweeps of Georgetown, Villanova and most recently Xavier on Wednesday afternoon at the Al McGuire Center.

Junior Allie Barber was selected as BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season after reaching a career milestone of 1,000 kills against Villanova. Sophomore Martha Konovodoff was also named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll for her 4.91 digs per set on the season with her fourth award this year.

Marquette has enjoyed a stretch of three consecutive home games and will be back in Milwaukee to host Butler at 6 p.m. CT on Wednesday, Oct. 10.

WHERE TO WATCH/FOLLOW THE ACTION

LIVE STATS: https://depaulbluedemons.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
WATCH: https://depaulbluedemons.com/watch/?Live=22&type=Live

OPPONENT

DePaul (4-12, 2-3): DePaul earned its first pair of back-to-back wins in the 2018 campaign with a 3-1 win over Georgetown and taking a five-set thriller over Butler on Wednesday evening in Chicago in a match that had four Blue Demons reach double-digit digs and Claire Anderson tally her third double-double of the season with 15 kills and 12 digs.

Emma Price leads DePaul with 2.42 kills per set this season, while Isabelle Banez averages 4.58 digs per contest. The Blue Demons rank fifth in the BIG EAST combined with 14.88 digs per set with Banez' total ranking seventh.

Marquette won both meetings in 2017 and owns a 31-29 record all-time against the Blue Demons.

WHAT THE TEAM IS SAYING:
On DePaul…
"DePaul has really turned around a slow start and their new staff is really doing a good job getting them to play quality defense. Three of their attackers are starting to play well as they hit the middle grind of conference play. Back-to-back wins hasn't been too frequent with the current team and they are playing with confidence and playing well. They were low error from the service line against a good blocking team in Butler on Wednesday night."

On the tight two-week schedule…
"We have four matches in seven days, so we are keeping an eye on the pace in which we are practicing. This two-week span last year was detrimental to us in terms of missed class time and fatigue. Every year we hit a stretch of four matches in seven days and look to see if we can get through it unscathed. Last year we did, but we felt the effects of it later in the season, so the focus this year is can we get through these matches with wins and continue to play well once it is over."

-Ryan Theis
Head Coach

STORYLINES:

Marquette is on a three-game win streak since falling at No. 10 Creighton on Sept. 23. Each win has occurred in straight sets.
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 on Sept. 28. She owns 418 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 470 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 1,019 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.
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 .352 and .358, respectively through the 23 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.