Volleyball hosts BIG EAST Championship Friday-Saturday

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MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University women's volleyball team hosts the 2021 BIG EAST Women's Volleyball Championship, presented by JEEP, on Nov. 26-27 at the Al McGuire Center.

The Golden Eagles face UConn in Friday's first semifinal at 12:30 p.m. Central time before No. 22 Creighton and DePaul square off at 3 p.m. CT. Saturday's championship match is slated for 1 p.m. CT on FS2 with Bob Brainerd (play-by-play), Michelle Griffin-Wenzel (analyst) and Alexis Downie (sideline) on the call. The semifinals are set to air live on the BIG EAST Digital Network through FloSports.

Marquette, conference regular season co-champion alongside Creighton, is in search of its first BIG EAST tournament crown since it captured both the regular season and tournament titles in 2013. The Golden Eagles are hosting the league tournament for the first time since 2019 and have hosted six times previously. MU is 11-12 all-time in the BIG EAST Championship and has advanced to the title bout six times.

MARQUETTE (25-4, 16-2 BIG EAST): The Golden Eagles have won their last seven matches since a 3-1 loss to then-No. 24 Creighton on Oct. 29 and have only lost to three teams this season - ranked squads from Creighton, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

Graduate student Taylor Wolf, playing both setter and right-side hitter, sits second in all of NCAA Division I volleyball with seven triple-doubles on the year and is among the BIG EAST's leaders in hitting percentage (eighth, .311), kills (10th, 2.89/set), assists (11th, 5.42/set), service aces (31 total aces), and digs (2.70/set). Middle blocker Savannah Rennie has also been dominant in her seventh year, posting a team-best 109 blocks this season (1.06/set) and is hitting .322 with 2.78 kills per set. The San Diego, California native has also seen time on the outside in recent matches due to injuries at that position.

In conference matches, Marquette enters the tournament leading the league in hitting percentage (.265), kills (14.53 per set) and assists (13.30/set), ranks second in service aces (1.80/set), and fourth in both opponent hitting percentage (.200) and digs (16.33/set). MU's top-five hitters are all among the BIG EAST's hitting percentage leaders, led by middle blocker Carsen Murray at .345.

Head coach Ryan Theis, who is 179-61 in his Marquette career with a 103-26 record in BIG EAST play, is in search of his first BIG EAST tournament crown. Theis earned four Mid-American Conference tournament championships while head coach at Ohio for six seasons from 2008-13.

UCONN (21-9, 13-5 BIG EAST): Marquette's semifinal opponent, the UConn Huskies, earned the third seed in the BIG EAST despite dropping two of their last three contests. UConn boasts a win over No. 19 Creighton this season, but also fell to Georgetown, Seton Hall and Butler.

Caylee Parker sits atop the UConn leaderboard with 379 kills (3.41 per set, 4th in BIG EAST), while Kennadie Jake-Turner leads the conference in hitting percentage at .349. McKayla Wuensch paces the Huskies offense with 9.59 assists per set, and Karly Berkland averages 4.04 digs per frame. The Huskies are coached by Ellen Herman-Kimball, who played for Theis at Ohio.

SERIES WITH UCONN: MU owns an 8-3 edge in the all-time series with the Huskies and is riding a five-game winning streak. Both of this season's matchups were Marquette wins, each coming in four sets.

CREIGHTON (28-3, 16-2 BIG EAST): The Bluejays secured the No. 1 seed in the BIG EAST tournament and a share of the conference regular season title with two sweeps last weekend. The last loss for the Jays came on Oct. 16, and they're riding an 11-match winning streak heading into the conference tournament.

Norah Sis leads CU in kills with 374 (3.63 per set), while Jaela Zimmerman averages 3.71 terminations per set, second-best in the conference. Kendra Wait paces all BIG EAST setters with 10.50 assists per frame, while Naomi Hickman and Abby Bottomley rank second in the league in blocks and digs per set respectively.

SERIES WITH CREIGHTON: Marquette sits at 5-23 all-time against the Bluejays, with the most recent MU win coming in Feb. 2021. The Jays captured both matches this season against MU, 3-1, and are 7-2 all-time against MU at the Al McGuire Center. MU's last home win in the series came in Oct. 2017.

DEPAUL (19-11, 12-6 BIG EAST): The Blue Demons claimed the final spot in the BIG EAST tournament thanks to six-straight wins to close out the regular season. DePaul has not lost since Oct. 30 its only losses in league play have come against fellow semifinal participants MU, CU and UConn.

Jill Pressly spearheads the DePaul attack, averaging 3.31 kills per set (fifth in BIG EAST). Middle blocker Donna Brown is second in the conference with a .340 hitting percentage, and Rachel Krasowski finished with the second-most digs in the conference.

SERIES WITH DEPAUL: The Golden Eagles are 39-29 against the Blue Demons, having taken the last 22 contests. At the Al McGuire Center, Marquette stands at 13-2 against DePaul. When the two met in October, MU had to rally back from a two-set deficit and multiple match points to pick up a five-set victory.

Keep up with the Marquette University women's volleyball program through social media by following on Twitter (@MarquetteVB) and Instagram (@MarquetteVB) and 'liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteVolleyball).