No. 19 Marquette Earns a 3-1 Victory at Villanova

VILLANOVA, Pa.– The No. 19 Marquette University volleyball team stormed back from a first set loss to earn a 3-1 (21-25, 25-14, 25-15, 25-17) victory at Villanova on Friday evening.

Junior Allie Barber paced the Golden Eagles in kills with a match-high 15, but sophomore Hope Werch stuffed the stat sheet with her second double-double of the season and a near triple-double as she hit for 11 kills, collected 10 digs and served a career-high eight aces.

Senior Jenna Rosenthal totaled nine kills, while freshman Ellie Koontz knocked down a career-best eight. Neither had any errors.

Junior Lauren Speckman and sophomore Sarah Rose each handed out 23 assists, while sophomore Martha Konovodoff and senior Anna Haak collected 20 and 14 digs, respectively.

"Serving and passing is one of our greatest strengths and it the first set Villanova had the edge, but after that we flipped and that was the match," head coach Ryan Theis said. "I was proud of our play in a tough environment and once we settled in they were able to come back and play our style of volleyball for the rest of the match."

Marquette overcame poor hitting at just a .156 clip in the first set to take control of the second with a 25-14 victory. The Golden Eagles hit .312 combined in the frame and held Villanova to just a .030 mark as Barber and Werch each had seven kills through two sets. Using a 7-1 scoring run in the middle of set three, Marquette cruised to a 25-15 win and closed the match taking the fourth frame, 25-17 behind five kills from Barber.

Villanova (13-12, 6-7) was led by Allie Olsonoski with nine kills, while Regan Lough totaled 18 digs.

The Golden Eagles travel to Georgetown to take on the Hoyas on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 5 p.m. CT.