Volleyball falls in NCAA First Round to Dayton, 3-1

Box Score (PDF)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana – The Marquette University women's volleyball team fell 3-1 to the University of Dayton in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship on Thursday evening at Holloway Gymnasium.

Savannah Rennie led the Golden Eagles (26-6) with 14 kills, while Jenna Reitsma had 11 and Taylor Wolf had 10 along with 20 assists and 15 digs.

Dayton led by as many as eight points in the opening set on its way to a 25-20 victory while hitting .382. Rennie posted a set-high five kills for the Golden Eagles, who pulled within three, 22-19, before the game's final margin.

The Flyers also claimed a tight second set, 25-21, for a 2-0 lead at the intermission. The stanza was tied at every point from three to 11 before a Jenna Reitsma and Anastasija Svetnik block gave MU its first lead of the match at 12-11. UD took six of the final eight points of the frame for the win.

Marquette led by as many as seven points in the third set but had to fend off match-point to claim a 26-24 win. The Golden Eagles used Flyers' service and hitting errors along with a Taylor Wolf kill to take the frame's final three points. MU won the set with just nine kills.

MU fought off three match-points in the fourth frame before suffering a 25-23 loss.

Lexie Almodovar led Dayton (26-5) with 21 kills, while Alayna Yates had 13 and Jamie Peterson, 12.

The Golden Eagles were making their 10th NCAA tournament appearance in the last 11 years. In total, MU is 6-10 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.

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.

Marquette is 7-18 against the Flyers in NCAA Division I play (since 1986) and 8-22 overall. The Golden Eagles had one each of the three most recent outings since 2003, including a sweep of UD in the 2019 NCAA First Round at Purdue.

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).