Marquette Tops Villanova, 3-0 for a Second Consecutive Sweep

MILWAUKEE – The 20^th ranked Marquette University volleyball team downed Villanova on Saturday evening at the Al McGuire Center as the Golden Eagles swept the Wildcats, 3-0 (25-10, 25-23, 25-19), which was their second straight sweep.

Junior Allie Barber and senior Jenna Rosenthal led Marquette (12-4, 3-1) with 15 kills each, which was a season high for Rosenthal. Junior Lauren Speckman and sophomore Sarah Rose handed out 21 and 20 assists, respectively, while sophomore Martha Konovodoff collected a match-high 17 digs.

It was a milestone night for Barber as she reached 1,000 career kills in the second set and finished the match with 1,005 total.

Marquette took control early in the first set and cruised to a 25-10 win with seven service aces. Villanova came out hot in the second frame, but Marquette answered as the teams traded points with the score tied 10 times before the Golden Eagles pulled to a 25-23 win. MU was slow to start in the third set, but a 15-4 run reversed the momentum and a kill from Rosenthal closed out the match.

"Our serving made it pretty easy to play defense, I thought our serving was great. There were times we made some good plays," head coach Ryan Theis said. "I thought Martha made a couple of spectacular plays. Villanova is really good at bouncing back and we have seen that before, so when we were giving too many errors, it was a matter of playing steady and even."

Villanova (10-7, 3-2) was led Mallory Potts and Clare Delaplane who each notched 10 kills, while Emma Decker handed out 30 assists.

Marquette had an excellent night from the service line with a season-best 12 aces, including four from Konovodoff. The Golden Eagles combined to hit a .337 percentage led by a blistering .667 mark from Rosenthal and a .452 clip from Barber.

The Golden Eagles will return to action on Wednesday, Oct. 3 when the squad hosts Xavier at 11:30 a.m. CT at the Al McGuire Center for a Kid's Day matinee.