Volleyball Sweeps Ball State in NCAA First Round

Box Score (PDF) | Highlights | Presser

MILWAUKEE – The fourth-seeded and No. 16 Marquette University women's volleyball team swept Ball State (25-20, 25-17, 25-17) in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship at the Al McGuire Center on Thursday night.

"I thought it was a really balanced effort tonight," MU head coach Ryan Theis said. "I thought Yadhi (Anchante) distributed it very evenly, ranging from 12 to 23 attempts. I think we had five players within five attempts of each other. When we're balanced like that it makes it hard to defend us. If we are controlling the ball well enough I think that we can be a handful."

The Golden Eagles (28-3) hit.369, led by All-BIG EAST selection Carsen Murray, who had a match-high 12 kills and hit .478. Fellow middle hitter Hattie Bray contributed eight kills on 12 errorless swings (.667), while Ella Foti and Aubrey Hamilton each had nine kills.

Libero Carly Skrabak chipped in a team-high 13 digs and a match-best three service aces for the Golden Eagles, who had nine total aces in the sweep.

Marquette pulled away from a tight start in the first set for the 25-20 win and trailed just once in the match on the first point of set No. 2. The Golden Eagles hit between .364 and .375 in all three frames.

Middle blocker Marie Plitt and outside hitter Cait Snyder paced the Cardinals (24-9), combining for 20 of the team's 33 kills. Senior libero Maggie Huber recorded a match-high 14 digs for Ball State.

NOTABLE:

Marquette is 1-1 all-time against Ball State. The lone previous matchup was a sweep by the Cardinals in 1990 at the Eastern Michigan Quad.
The Golden Eagles have now tied the program record for overall wins set in both 2018 and 2019.
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 11 of the last 12 tournaments, with their lone absence coming in the spring of 2021 due to a reduced field.
In total, MU is 7-10 all-time in NCAA tournament play with six trips to the second round and one trip to the regional semifinals in 2018.
The Golden Eagles have won six first round matches and their lone win in the second round came in a sweep of Cincinnati at the Al McGuire Center on Dec. 1, 2018.
In 2021 NCAA first round action, Marquette fell to Dayton, 3-1 in West Lafayette, Indiana at Holloway Gymnasium on Purdue's campus.
Ball State entered the NCAAs coming off a five-set loss to Bowling Green in the Mid-American Conference title match after winning its second straight regular season title with a 15-3 record.
The Cardinals are 11-7 away from home this season and in non-conference play defeated Oklahoma and Alabama, while falling to Mississippi State and then-No. 10 Purdue.
The Cardinals have made three NCAA appearances in the last four years under MAC Coach of the Year Kelli Miller Phillips and made their 11th appearance overall.
BSU is 3-11 in NCAA tournament play and defeated Michigan last season in the first round.
The Golden Eagles earned an at-large berth out of the BIG EAST Conference and hosted matches for the second time and first since 2018.
The Golden Eagles earned their second BIG EAST regular season title in as many years and fell to Creighton, 3-2, in the conference tournament title match last Saturday.
The Golden Eagles entered the NCAA tournament sixth in NCAA Division I with a .293 hitting percentage, seventh nationally in kills per set (14.52) and ninth in assists per frame (13.43).
Carsen Murray entered the weekend third nationally in hitting percentage at .442.
Fifth-seeded and No. 13 Georgia Tech swept Wright State in the other first round contest prior to MU's match.

UP NEXT: No. 16 Marquette and No. 13 Georgia Tech (21-7) will meet on Friday in the NCAA Second Round at 6 p.m. CT at the Al McGuire Center. Single-session ($6) general admission tickets can be purchased online, or by calling the Marquette Ticket Office at 414-288-4668. For questions, call or email athletics@marquette.edu.