No. 10 Marquette Hosts Seton Hall and St. John's

MILWAUKEE – The 10^th-ranked Marquette women's volleyball team continues a six-match homestand with a pair of BIG EAST Conference foes this weekend. The Golden Eagles host Seton Hall on Friday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. CT before facing St. John's on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 5 p.m. CT.

Marquette (11-2, 1-0) is off to its finest start since the 1997 season and have won five consecutive matches. The Golden Eagles opened BIG EAST play with a mid-week tilt against Butler, winning in a three-set sweep.

Senior Allie Barber leads MU and the BIG EAST with 4.71 kills per set, which also ranks 14^th in the NCAA. As a squad the Golden Eagles combine to hit a league-leading 14.96 kills per set, ranking third nationally.

Senior Lauren Speckman and Sarah Rose each hand out 7.02 and 5.23 assists per set, helping MU to a combined 14.35 per frame, second to just Minnesota on a national level. At 4.63 digs per set, Martha Konovodoff is collecting 4.63 digs, which is fifth in the BIG EAST.

Both matches will stream live and for free at GoMarquette.com.

PROMOS

FRIDAY: First 300 Students Receive a Marquette hat and Family Weekend Ticket Deal
parents can get special ticket deal at bit.ly/2mVAwsM.

SATURDAY: Students get double points in the MU Rewards App and parents can get a special ticket deal for Family Weekend.

WATCH LIVE/FOLLOW THE ACTION:
Video: https://gomarquette.com/watch/?Live=76&type=Live (Seton Hall)
https://gomarquette.com/watch/?Live=77&type=Live (St. John's)
Live Stats: https://gomarquette.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary (All Matches)

OPPONENTS

SETON HALL (5-9, 0-0): The Pirates won two of their past three matches last weekend with wins over William and Mary and George Mason. Amanda Rachwal was named to the BIG EAST weekly honor roll and Haylee Gasser leads Seton Hall with 2.77 kills per set, while Julia Wilkins is at 2.19 kills per set. As a squad Seton Hall has strong defense and ranks third in the BIG EAST with 15.50 digs per set.

Marquette owns a 15-4 record in the series with Seton Hall. Last season the squads met just once, in South Orange due to late season travel issue. The Golden Eagles won, 3-0.

ST. JOHN'S (8-5, 0-0): St. John's will make a stop at DePaul on Friday evening before traveling to Milwaukee. The Redstorm had a pair of victories last weekend, including a 3-1 win over then-No. 14 Oregon on a neutral court. Sophomore Efrosini Alexakou, was named BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week and she leads her team and ranks second in the league with 3.86 kills per set. Two other St. John's players average over 3.00 kills per set in Klara Mikelova and Rachel Rastelli.

The Golden Eagles have won five straight matches over St. John's and own a 16-5 overall record in the all-time series. In 2018 MU totaled two sweeps in the regular season and a 3-1 win in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament.

WHAT THE TEAM IS SAYING:
"I was pretty pleased with some gutsy performances in non-conference play and I think that was one of the biggest takeaways. Some of the come backs, whether down 0-2, or down big in a fifth set were great. This is a veteran group and they are pretty calm too. They don't get rattled."

-Ryan Theis, head coach

STORYLINES:

HISTORIC START: At 11-2 overall Marquette is off to its best start since the 1997 campaign and enter BIG EAST play with the best overall record in the league.
AVCA POLL: The Golden Eagles remain in the top-10 this week, checking in at No. 10 for the week four of the AVCA Coaches' Poll. Marquette entered the poll ranked No. 16 in the preseason.
BIG EAST WEEKLY AWARDS: Marquette has had a player receive BIG EAST honors every week this season.
Sept. 24: Allie Barber and Martha Konovodoff (Honor Roll); Sept. 16: Allie Barber (Offensive Player of the Week); Sept. 9: Hope Werch (Honor Roll); Sept. 3: Kaitlyn Lines (Offensive Player of the Week).
NATIONAL SCENE: The 6-2 offense has worked for the Golden Eagles as the squad ranks second in the NCAA 14.35 assists per set, just behind national leader Minnesota (14.48). Setters Lauren Speckman and Sarah Rose are handing out 7.00 assists and 5.26 assists per set, respectively with Speckman ranking eighth in the BIG EAST.
Marquette ranks third in the NCAA in kills per set with 14.96, led by Allie Barber at 4.74 per set, which leads the BIG EAST and ranks 14^th in the NCAA. The Golden Eagles are allowing just 11.8 kills set from opponents.
TOP-10 VICTORIES: The Golden Eagles have four top-10 wins in program history and have earned two top-15 road wins this season. MU defeated then- No. 4 Wisconsin on Sept. 5 for the first time in program history, which marked the highest-ranked team that Marquette has defeated. The squad also topped then- No. 13 BYU on Aug. 31. The Golden Eagles' other top-10 wins came in a 3-2 victory over No. 7 Florida in 2014 and a 3-1 win at No. 7 USC in the 2016 opener.
THEIS STATS: Head coach Ryan Theis is in his sixth season at the helm of the Golden Eagles and owns a 274-103 career record with a 129-48 mark at Marquette.
Theis is the 17^th winningest coach in Division I with a .723 percentage through 11 seasons as a head coach. He has never had a season with fewer than 21 wins and the 28 victories for Marquette in 2018 was a career best in victories for Theis as head coach.
Marquette is 24-20 in season openers and 6-0 in the Ryan Theis era.
BIG EAST OPENERS: The Golden Eagles opened their 15^th season of BIG EAST competition on Wednesday and own an 10-5 record in league lidlifters, including a 4-2 mark under Ryan Theis.
OTHER NOTABLES:
The Golden Eagles were picked to win the BIG EAST in the 2019 preseason coaches' poll, earning eight first-place votes, which is the second consecutive season that Marquette was selected first in preseason.
Marquette played a tough non-conference schedule and faced four ranked opponents and two that are receiving votes in the AVCA preseason coaches' poll beginning at No. 9 BYU. MU also travels to No. 4 Wisconsin (Sept. 5), hosts No. 17 Baylor (Sept. 8) and takes on No. 6 Illinois (Sept. 15 at Illinois State). UCF (Sept. 13) and Northern Iowa (Sept. 21) are receiving votes in the poll. Currently, BIG EAST foe Creighton is ranked No. 23 in the poll. The Golden Eagles will have their first chance to knock off the reigning league champions on Saturday, Oct. 12 in Milwaukee.
Senior Allie Barber was chosen as the BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year for the second straight season, while juniors Hope Werch and Martha Konovodoff were selected to the preseason squad.
Marquette added two transfers and two freshmen to the squad for the 2019 season. Gwyn Jones joins the Golden Eagles as a senior from Auburn, while Kaitlyn (KJ) Lines is a junior transferring from Pacific. Claire Nuessmeier (St. Peter, Minn.) and Hannah Vanden Berg (Little Chute, Wis.) round out the squad as freshmen.

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