Volleyball makes 10th NCAA Championship appearance against Dayton

Bracket | Bracket (PDF) | Tickets | Match Notes (PDF)

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University women's volleyball team has earned an at-large berth to the 2021 NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship and will face Dayton (25-5) on Thursday, Dec. 2 in West Lafayette, Indiana at 3:30 p.m. Central time.

No. 6 national seed Purdue (23-6) will host Illinois State (19-3) in the other NCAA First Round matchup at Holloway Gymnasium. The matches will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and live statistics will be available through StatBroadcast.

Tickets went on sale at noon Monday and are available online, by calling the Hayes Family Athletics Ticket Office at 765-494-3194, or in person at the ticket office in Mackey Arena. All-session tickets include one ticket for both first-round matches on Friday, Dec. 6 and one ticket for the second round match on Saturday, Dec. 7.

MARQUETTE (26-5, 16-2 BIG EAST): The Golden Eagles are the BIG EAST Conference regular season co-champions and earned an at-large berth after finishing as runner-up to No. 22 Creighton in the 2021 BIG EAST tournament. The squad is led by eighth-year head coach Ryan Theis and All-BIG EAST Conference selections Taylor Wolf, Savannah Rennie and Hope Werch.

Wolf, BIG EAST co-Player of the Year, 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 (10th, .303), kills (10th, 2.87/set), assists (12th, 5.42/set), service aces (31 total aces), and digs (2.78/set). The graduate student rarely leaves the court, serving as both a right side hitter and setter in MU's 6-2 offense, and was a two-time Horizon League Player of the Year during her time at Green Bay. She joined Allie Barber (2017 and 2019) as the only MU players to earn the award.

Rennie makes her second-straight appearance on the all-conference team after transferring to MU from the University of California. The middle blocker has totaled 305 kills on a .307 hitting percentage, while adding a team-best 112 blocks (1.03/set). She played outside hitter during the conference tournament as the Golden Eagles have tried to offset the losses of starting outside hitters Werch and Hannah Vanden Berg to knee injuries. Outside hitter Jenna Reitsma, a true freshman, and Oregon State-transfer Anastasija Svetnik have each seen increased roles in recent weeks due to injuries and have acclimated themselves well despite limited playing time early in the year.

Libero Carly Skrabak joined Wolf on the All-BIG EAST Championship team and has excelled since taking the colored jersey mid-season. She posted 17 digs in the BIG EAST Championship match against CU and is averaging 3.77 digs per set.

MARQUETTE NCAA HISTORY: The MU women's volleyball program joined NCAA Division I for the 1986 campaign and made its first appearance in the NCAA tournament in 2011. Since that time, the Golden Eagles have made 10 of the last 11 tournaments, with their lone absence coming this past spring due to a reduced field. In total, MU is 6-9 all-time in NCAA tournament play with five trips to the second round and one trip to the regional semifinals in 2018. The Golden Eagles have won five first round matches and their lone win the the second round came in a sweep of Cincinnati at the Al McGuire Center on Dec. 1, 2018. MU is 0-5 against seeded teams.

Most recently in NCAA play, Marquette swept Dayton in the 2019 NCAA First Round before a four-set loss to 16-seed Purdue at Holloway Gymnasium. Current redshirt juniors Ellie Koontz and Katie Schoessow are the only active MU players to see action in that weekend for the Golden Eagles. Koontz posted seven kills against the Flyers in the opening round and six against the Boilermakers, while Schoessow played two sets at defensive specialist against UD and all three in the loss to Purdue.

THEIS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: Eleven of Theis' 14 teams have earned NCAA tournament berths and five have won at least one postseason match. Since taking the reigns at Marquette for the 2014 campaign, he's led seven of his eight teams to NCAA competition and did so at Ohio in four of his six seasons.

DAYTON (25-5, 16-0 ATLANTIC 10): The Dayton Flyers earned the Atlantic 10's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after capturing the conference championship on Nov. 21. The Flyers are currently riding a 19-game winning streak and went undefeated in A-10 play. Marquette's Round of 64 opponent is led by three-time Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Jamie Peterson (4.42 kills / set), while first team all-conference selection Lexie Almodovar averages 3.09 terminations per frame. Livie Sandt, the A-10 Setter of the Year, dishes out 9.44 assists per set, and Amelia Moore averages 1.21 blocks per stanza, the top mark in the conference.

SERIES WITH DAYTON: Marquette is 7-17 against the Flyers in NCAA Division I play (since 1986) and 8-21 overall. The Golden Eagles have one each of the three most recent outings since 2003, including a sweep of UD in the 2019 NCAA First Round at Purdue.

NO. 6 SEED, PURDUE (23-6, 15-5 BIG TEN): The Purdue Boilermakers will serve as the host of the first two rounds after losing just one game outside of conference play this year. Purdue boasts wins over three top-10 teams (Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin) and only dropped five Big Ten contests in a loaded conference slate.

Caitlyn Newton averages 3.97 kills per set to lead the Boilermakers, and Grace Cleveland (spring AVCA All-American) totaled 312 terminations and 114 blocks. Hayley Bush dished out 10.24 assists per set, while Jena Otec, the spring's Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, contributed 4.57 digs per frame.

SERIES WITH PURDUE: Marquette is 0-3 against the Boilermakers. The Golden Eagles dropped the latest matchup, 3-1, in the 2019 NCAA Second Round at Holloway Gymnasium.

ILLINOIS STATE (19-13, 13-5 MVC): The Missouri Valley Conference champions enter the NCAA tournament after a five-set upset victory in the conference championship over first-seeded Loyola Chicago. This season marks the third straight MVC tournament title for the Redbirds and the fourth-consecutive NCAA appearance.

MVC Player of the Year Tamara Otene paces ISU with 3.95 kills per set, while Sarah Kushner, an MVC First Team selection, added 361 kills on the year. Kaity Weimerskirch earned MVC Libero of the Year after totaling 4.85 digs per frame, and Nicole Lund leads the charge with 119 blocks.

SERIES WITH ILLINOIS STATE: The Golden Eagles stand at 5-3 all-time against the Redbirds, having captured the regular season matchup in a sweep on Sept. 5 at Redbird Arena in the Red & White Invitational. Werch led MU in that contest with 10 kills and five service aces to become MU's first player in program history with 1,000 kills, 1,000 digs and 150 aces. ISU's most recent win in the series came in a five-set thriller in Milwaukee on Jan. 23, 2021, the second of back-to-back matchups between the two squads.

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).