No. 21 Marquette Upends Illinois State, 3-0

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University volleyball team completed a perfect day as the Golden Eagles earned a sweep over Illinois State, 3-0 (25-23, 26-24, 25-17) on Saturday evening, which marked the 100^th win for head coach Ryan Theis at Marquette.

Sophomore Allie Barber once again led the Golden Eagles (9-3) tallying 12 kills, while sophomore Hope Werch added nine. Sophomore Sarah Rose earned her second double-double of the season as she dished out 18 assists and collected 10 digs. Senior Anna Haak and sophomore Martha Konovodoff also totaled double digit digs with 15 and 12, respectively.

Making her second career start, freshman Claire Mosher handed out 14 assists.

After Marquette earned the 25-23 win in the first set, Illinois State (8-4) was the first to reach set point in the second frame at 24-22, but Mosher came in to serve and earned an ace, which helped the Golden Eagles score four straight points to win, 26-24. The Redbirds held just one lead in the third set as MU earned the 25-17 win, which completed the sweep.

Lexi Varga and Ella Frances each tallied nine kills to lead ISU and setter Stef Jankiewicz dished 30 assists.

Rose was Marquette's selection to the all-tournament team as just one player from each team was selected due to Wisconsin and Tulsa only playing two matches.

"I think we're ready to go and looking forward to beginning BIG EAST play," Theis said. "We had goals for the preseason and what each match means for later in trying to make the NCAA Tournament, for trying to become a seeded team and we achieved some of those goals, not all of them, but some of them and now all of our attention turns to trying to win a BIG EAST Championship."

Marquette opens BIG EAST play on Friday, Sept 21 at Providence at 5 p.m. Central time.