Volleyball heads to face Eastern Illinois in NCAA First Round

Match Notes (PDF) | NCAA Bracket (PDF) | Interactive Bracket
PRESSERS: Coach Theis | C. Murray | S. Kushner

-The Marquette University community will send off the Golden Eagles from the Al McGuire Center on Tuesday, Nov. 28 at 4:15 p.m.-

MILWAUKEE – The sixth-seeded Marquette University women's volleyball team will make its 12th appearance in the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship on Thursday afternoon against Eastern Illinois in West Lafayette, Indiana.

The match is slated for 3:30 p.m. Central time and airs live on ESPN+ along with all other first and second round contests.

The Golden Eagles will play NCAA matches at Holloway Gymnasium, on the campus of Purdue, for the third time in the last five seasons. In its first trip to West Lafayette in 2019, Marquette defeated Dayton and lost to the No. 16-overall seed Purdue. MU also fell in four sets to Dayton in 2021 in a first-round contest.

The Golden Eagles (20-10, 16-2 BIG EAST) are the BIG EAST Conference regular season co-champions for the third time in as many years and are making their 12th NCAA trip in the last 13 seasons. Marquette's lone absence in the NCAA bracket was in the spring of 2021 due to a reduced tournament field.

Marquette has made six trips to the second round of the NCAA tournament and advanced to the regional semifinals in both 2018 and 2022 after hosting first and second round matches at the Al McGuire Center. In total, MU is 8-11 all-time in NCAA tournament play since making its debut appearance in 2011 at the University of Illinois.

The third-seeded Boilermakers will face Fairfield on Thursday evening at Holloway following MU's match against EIU. The second-round match in West Lafayette is slated for Friday at 6 p.m. Central time between the two first round winners.

NCAA First/Second Rounds – West Lafayette, Indiana
Purchase Tickets | Watch Live
Matches on ESPN+ (all times Central)

Thursday, Nov. 30
3:30 p.m. – [6] Marquette vs. Eastern Illinois
6 p.m. – [3] No. 12 Purdue vs. Fairfield

Friday, Dec. 1
6 p.m. – NCAA Second Round

MARQUETTE (20-10 (16-2 BIG EAST), No. 6 seed)

Setter Yadhira Anchante, outside hitter Aubrey Hamilton and middle hitters Hattie Bray and Carsen Murray were named to the All-BIG EAST Conference Team for the second time in as many years. Hamilton was a unanimous selection.
Hamilton leads MU this season with 403 kills (3.72 per set) on .276 hitting. She ranked second in BIG EAST play with 3.82 kills and 4.83 points per set while hitting .312.
Murray hit a BIG EAST-best .420 in conference play and .379 overall. She also averaged a team-best 1.00 blocks per set in league action.
A key to Marquette's success in the final month of the regular season was the play of junior outside hitter Jenna Reitsma. Over the final 10 regular season matches (beginning with the Oct. 20 contest at Butler), Reitsma averaged a team-best 3.56 kills per set while hitting .317 (114-23-287) with 2.38 digs per set and a team-high 21 service aces. That Butler match coincided with a five-match stretch for Ella Foti as MU's setter in place of Yadhira Anchante, who was dealing with an illness.
MU has been without Foti, its starting right-side hitter, for the last two matches after she suffered a hand injury against St. John's on Nov. 17.
In BIG EAST play, MU hit a combined .283 and held its opponents to a mark of .148 with 2.38 blocks and 16.63 digs per set. Those four marks rank second in the conference, while MU led the league with 1.97 service aces per set.
MU has 10 matches this season against teams currently ranked in the AVCA Coaches Poll (No. 3 Wisconsin, No. 4 Pitt, No. 6 Oregon, No. 11 Tennessee, T-No. 12 Purdue, No. 15 Kansas, No. 17 Creighton (twice), No. 19 Dayton, and No. 21 Western Kentucky. MU is the third team outside the top 25 with 23 total points.

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 12 of the last 13 tournaments, with their lone absence coming in the spring of 2021 due to a reduced field.
In total, MU is 8-11 all-time in NCAA tournament play with six trips to the second round and a pair of trips to the regional semifinals in 2018 and 2022.
Marquette is 0-6 against seeded teams (Overall Nos. 1-through-16 (regional 1-4 seeds)). Last year was the first that the NCAA started seeding teams regionally.

THEIS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT:

Thirteen of the 16 teams that Ryan Theis has led as head coach have earned NCAA tournament berths and six have won at least one postseason match.
Since taking the reins at Marquette for the 2014 campaign, he's led nine of his 10 teams to NCAA competition, including in all nine full seasons, and did so at Ohio in four of his six years.

EASTERN ILLINOIS (28-4 (15-3 OVC))

The Panthers won the Ohio Valley Conference tournament to claim the league's automatic berth by sweeping SEMO in the final last Wednesday.
The 28 wins for Eastern Illinois are its highest mark since 1982 and its outright OVC regular season title is its first since 1998.
EIU is making its first NCAAA tournament appearance since 2001 when current MU head coach Ryan Theis was its top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. Theis began his coaching career at EIU and spent two seasons with the Panthers before earning his master's degree in 2002 in athletic administration/sport management.
Giovana Larregui Lopez is the OVC Player of the Year for the second time in as many seasons, while Catalina Rochaix is the OVC Setter of the Year. Natalie Mitchem and Christina Martinez Mundo joined the two award winners on the All-OVC First Team.
The Panthers have won their last six matches since a 3-2 loss at SIUE on Nov. 10. In total, three of EIU's four losses have come in five sets, except for a 3-1 loss to Missouri on Sept. 15 at home. The Panthers had previously swept Mizzou the day prior to their first loss of the year.
Eastern Illinois led the OVC in all offensive categories and ranked as high as fifth nationally with 2.01 service aces per set. Rochaix is seventh nationally with 11.10 assists per frame and Martinez Mundo is fifth in NCAA Division I with 5.63 digs per frame.
The Panthers have five players from outside the continental United States on their roster, including student-athletes from Puerto Rico, Italy, Argentina and the Dominican Republic.
Junior outside hitter Kaitlyn Flynn was a teammate of MU sophomore Ella Holmstrom at Guilford High School in Rockford, Illinois.
The Panthers are led by fourth-year head coach Sara Thomas, who played collegiately at Missouri State and was the MVC Defensive Player of the Year in 2007.

SERIES HISTORY WITH EASTERN ILLINOIS:

Marquette is 2-11 all-time against the Panthers, though the two programs have played just once since 2000.
The two teams met nearly every season from 1981-92 and Eastern Illinois won all 10 meetings during that time.
MU has won two of the last three meetings in the series and the most recent match was a Marquette sweep on Sept. 7, 2012 at the Al McGuire Center. That contest was two years prior to the arrival of Theis at Marquette.

POTENTIAL SECOND ROUND OPPONENTS:
T-No. 12 PURDUE (21-8 (15-5 Big Ten), No. 3 seed):

The Boilermakers finished third in the Big Ten standings with a 15-5 record in league play and a 6-3 record against ranked opponents.
Purdue ended the regular season on a seven-match winning streak, which included home wins over then-No. 16 Penn State on Nov. 5 and then-No. 3 Wisconsin on Nov. 17.
Sophomore Eva Hudson leads the Boilermakers and ranks 10th nationally with 505 kills this season (her 4.39 kills per set average ranks 16th). Freshman outside hitter Chole Chicoine sits second among Purdue players with 438 kills (3.81 per frame).
Junior middle blocker Raven Colvin leads the Big Ten and ranks seventh in the nation with 157 total blocks (1.37 per set).
Libero Maddie Schermerhorn leads the Big Ten with 4.49 digs per set.
Hudson was an unanimous preseason All-Big Ten selection after leading Purdue in points and kills in 2022 as an AVCA All-America honorable mention and the 2022 Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
The Boilermakers added the nation's No. 3 recruiting class this fall, including the country's top overall recruit in Chicoine.
Chicoine and Hudson were members of the Team USA gold medal-winning squad at the Under-21 Pan American Cup this summer.
Dave Shondell is in his 21st season as head coach at Purdue and has led the Boilermakers to 18 NCAA tournaments in the last 21 years, including nine Sweet 16 appearances and four trips to the NCAA regional finals. He is a two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year.
The Boilers were 1-2 on the season and ranked 25th in the AVCA Poll when they faced Marquette on Sept. 1 in Lawrence, Kansas. Purdue won its season opener against Duke, 3-1, but was swept by then-No. 18 Creighton and fell in five to Loyola Chicago to close their opening weekend at home.
Purdue began the season at No. 16 in the AVCA Coaches Poll.

SERIES WITH PURDUE:

The Boilermakers have won all four meetings against the Golden Eagles, including a five-set heartbreaker in Lawrence, Kansas on Sept. 1 in the Kansas Invitational.
The Golden Eagles had match point in the fourth set, 24-21, on Sept. 1 before then-No. 25 Purdue fought off four match points to win the frame, 29-27. The Boilermakers then built an early four-point lead in the fifth and held on for the 17-15 win. MU rallied to tie the fifth at 12 before falling.
The Golden Eagles hit .223 in the first matchup to Purdue's .209. MU also held the statistical advantage in kills (66-63), assists (62-61), service aces (7-4) and digs (71-71). Hamilton led MU with 23 kills in the contest and Hudson had 21 for the Boilermakers.
Purdue won the most recent NCAA tournament meeting in four sets on Dec. 7, 2019, in the NCAA Second Round in West Lafayette. MU also played in the 2021 NCAAA tournament at Purdue but fell to Dayton in the opening round.
The first two all-time meetings were five-set Purdue wins, including a match in Lawrence, Kansas on Sept. 13, 2002. Three of the four meetings have gone five.

FAIRFIELD (22-6 (16-2 MAAC))

The Stags defeated both Rider and Quinnipiac in four sets to win the MAAC tournament and the league's automatic NCAA berth. It is Fairfield's 13th MAAC Championship.
Fairfield has won its last seven matches since a four-set loss at Quinnipiac on Oct. 29, and 15 of its last 16 overall.
The Stags captured their 22nd MAAC regular season title in the last 28 campaigns this fall.
Sophomore middle blocker Maya Walker leads the MAAC in hitting percentage (.358) and ranks second with 1.11 blocks per frame.
Mikayla Haut leads Fairfield with 2.85 kills per set, while the Stags have a total of six players averaging at least 1.50 kills per frame.
Head coach Nancy Somera is in her first season at Fairfield after stops at various levels in an accomplished coaching and playing career. Somera was an all-conference performer at Southern California before coaching the Trojans, Oregon State and South Carolina and an eight-year tenure at Division III Johnson & Wales.

SERIES HISTORY WITH FAIRFIELD:

Marquette owns a victory in the lone match between the two programs. That contest was a MU sweep on Aug. 29, 2021 at the Rainbow Wahine Classic in Hawaii.
The Golden Eagles hit .443 (44-5-88) in that win over the Stags with 11.0 team blocks. Former MU AVCA All-American Taylor Wolf earned MVP honors at the event, while Savannah Rennie and Hannah Vanden Berg earned all-tournament honors. Rennie had 10 kills and seven blocks in the win over Fairfield.

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).