No. 14 Marquette Travels to the 2018 NCAA Championship Third Round

MILWAUKEE – For the first time in program history, the Marquette University volleyball team is playing in the NCAA Championship Round of 16. The 14th-seeded Golden Eagles are in the Champaign Regional and will take on No. 3 Illinois Friday, Dec. 7 at 11 a.m. CT on ESPNU at Huff Hall in Champaign.

Should Marquette advance to the quarterfinals the Golden Eagles will take on the winner of No. 6 Wisconsin/San Diego on Saturday, Dec. 8 at 3 p.m. CT.

Marquette (28-6, 15-2 BIG EAST) has already had a historic season and has recorded its most wins under head coach Ryan Theis, while earning its first national seed in program history. The Golden Eagles finished second in the BIG EAST regular season and were runners-up to Creighton in the BIG EAST Tournament.

Marquette is making its eighth straight appearance in the NCAA Championship (2011-2018) and advanced past the first round for the first time since a 3-2 win over UNI in 2015.

WHERE TO WATCH/FOLLOW THE ACTION:
LIVE STATS:
Friday, Dec. 7 – Round of 16
11:00 a.m. (MU-ILL): https://www.ncaa.com/game/volleyball-women/d1/2018/12/07/marquette-illinois
WATCH:
Friday, Dec. 7 – Round of 16
11 a.m. (MU-ILL): http://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=f677b935-a10d-4b66-8a09-20ff23701e55

OPPONENTS

ILLINOIS (30-3): The Illini defeated Louisville to advance to the NCAA third round for the second straight season and 18^th all-time and are on a 15-match winning streak, having not lost since Oct. 12 at Minnesota. Jacqueline Quade leads Illinois with 4.12 kills per set, while setter Jordyn Poulter was named the Big Ten Co-Setter of the Year and is handing out 11.55 assists per game. She was also named AVCA Northeast Region Player of the Year on Tuesday. Illini head coach Chris Tamas was selected as AVCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year and Poulter, Quade and Ali Bastianelli were named to the Northeast Region Team; the third straight season that this senior trio has been named All-Region.

HISTORY (ILLINOIS): The two teams will meet for the fifth time in history on Friday with Illinois holding a 4-0 record in the all-time series. This is the first meeting since the Illini defeated Marquette in the NCAA Tournament second round at Huff Hall.

HISTORY (WISCONSIN): Wisconsin is 20-0 all-time over the Golden Eagles, including winning a straight set victory in Milwaukee this season. The Golden Eagles met the Badgers twice in 2017, including in the first round of the NCAA Tournament- a 3-0 Badger victory.

HISTORY (SAN DIEGO): Marquette and San Diego met in the first weekend of play in 2017 with the Toreros winning, 3-0 in Hawaii. Allie Barber had 13 kills in the match.

WHAT THE TEAM IS SAYING:
On this year's team…
"The culture and chemistry of this team is truly special. The way they handled themselves throughout the year and carried each other and worked for each other, I couldn't be happier for them. I am very proud. "

On the Cincinnati match…
"Our service pressure got to them and that was the difference in game one."

RYAN THEIS
Head Coach

Thoughts on reaching the Sweet Sixteen…
Jenna Rosenthal | Senior
"It was a matter of continuing to take care of business and executing the game plan. We needed to focus on the task at hand"

I am so happy we got another chance to play at home and that we got to host. Being able to have a send-off into the Sweet Sixteen with the support and love of Marquette University around us is so special."

Allie Barber | Junior
"We knew Cincinnati wasn't going to go down without a fight, so we had to give them everything we had with every point."

Anna Haak | Senior
"We stayed patient and we maintained through the Cincinnati match."

STORYLINES:

Marquette is making its eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, but its first as a national seed. At No. 14, the Golden Eagles hosted the first and second rounds for the first time in program history.
This is Marquette's first-ever appearance in the Sweet 16 and a first for head coach Ryan Theis. Theis has taken Marquette to the post season in each of his five seasons at the helm of the Golden Eagles and took Ohio to a pair of second round matches when he led the Bobcats for six years.
AVCA ALL-REGION: Junior Allie Barber was selected as the AVCA East Coast Region Player of the Year on Tuesday, also earning all-region honors, while sophomore Martha Konovodoff and redshirt senior Jenna Rosenthal joined her on the All-East Coach Region team and senior Anna Haak earned honorable mention honors.
Barber's award is the first time that Marquette has had the region player of the year. The Golden Eagles have had a region Freshman of the Year (Chelsea Heier, 2011; Autumn Bailey, 2013).
The BIG EAST conference had two nationally seeded team with No. 9 Creighton joining the Golden Eagles. Marquette and the Bluejays have represented the league in the NCAA postseason since 2013. The Bluejays fell to Washington, 3-0 in the second round.
`
The Golden Eagles fell to Creighton in the BIG EAST Championship game for the second straight season in a 3-1 contest.
The Golden Eagles dropped just seven total sets in conference play this season and just one set in a victory, turning in 14 sweeps in BIG EAST play and 23 total this season.
Marquette established a new program-best ranking, moving up to No. 15 in the AVCA Coaches Poll final regular season poll. The Golden Eagles entered the poll at No. 25 in week two of the season after being the unofficial 26th team to open the 2018 campaign. MU is ranked for the first time since 2013.
.
BIG EAST ACCOLADES: For the first time since 2016, Marquette has placed four on All-BIG EAST squads. Junior Allie Barber and redshirt senior Jenna Rosenthal earned unanimous All-BIG EAST first team awards for the third straight season, while senior Anna Haak is a selection to the All-BIG EAST first team for the first time. Sophomore libero Martha Konovodoff was named second team All-BIG EAST, marking her first postseason accolade.
A WINNING WAY: Marquette has amassed 28 victories this season, which marks the most for the program as a Division I institution. The Golden Eagles totaled 34 victories in 1979 and 1984 but was not a member of Division I until 1986.
This will be the third time in the BIG EAST Championship that the Golden Eagles' first round opponent will be the same team they concluded the regular season against. In 2013 Marquette finished the season with a 3-1 win over Butler and faced the Bulldogs in the first round of the BIG EAST Championship, winning 3-1 and in 2016 MU lost to Xavier ending regular season play and followed with a first round tournament loss to the Musketeers.
Senior Anna Haak reached the 1,000 career kills milestone on Oct. 26 against Creighton, combining her stats from Miami and Marquette. She became the third Golden Eagles to record 1,000 kills joining redshirt senior Jenna Rosenthal and Allie Barber.
Rosenthal became Marquette's all-time leader in assisted blocks in the match against Georgetown on Sept. 28. She owns 465 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 521 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 1,288 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 home opener 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 rank in the top-10 nationally in five categories: Fourth in aces per set (1.86) and assists per set (13.79), fifth in kills per set (14.77), seventh in team service aces (208) and eighth in hitting percentage at a .235 clip. In all categories Marquette led the BIG EAST.
Rosenthal and Barber boast stellar hitting percentages at .375 and .356, respectively through the 34 games of the season, helping propel the Golden Eagles to its .283 average combined. The duo ranks first and second in the BIG EAST and are 29th and 56th, respectively in the NCAA.
Barber's strong junior season continues as she leads the BIG EAST in kills per set with 4.67, ranking 12^th among NCAA squads with 523 total kills. She is just one of two players in the country hitting above a .350 hitting percentage that also has 450-or more kills on the season. Torrey Van Winden from Cal Poly finished her season hitting .365 with 466 total kills. Barber is the only Division I player that has at least 500 total kills and is hitting over 350.
Marquette has had a player record a double-double on 19 occasions this season. Anna Haak leads the squad with seven double-doubles, while Lauren Speckman has recorded five. Sophomores Sarah Rose and Hope Werch have tallied four and three double-doubles this season, respectively.