Volleyball sweeps EIU in NCAA First Round

Box Score (PDF) | Interactive Bracket
Presser (Theis, Hamilton Murray, Reitsma)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana – The sixth-seeded Marquette University women's volleyball team swept Eastern Illinois, 25-19, 25-16, 25-14, behind 11 blocks and nine service aces in the first round of the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship on Thursday afternoon at Holloway Gymnasium.

"I thought we played really well," Marquette 10th-year head coach Ryan Theis said. "If we ever got in a pickle somebody made a really nice play to get us out of it. Whether it was a good secondary set and a throw off the block. Or whether it was a stuff block or a big dig in transition. I thought people stepped up to keep the lead and push further forward."

Outside hitters Jenna Reitsma and Aubrey Hamilton powered the Golden Eagles (21-10) offensively with 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Reitsma continued her late season surge with three aces and a pair of blocks on a hitting mark of .423 (13-2-26).

Marquette hit a combined .362 and hit no lower than .333 in any of the three sets. The Golden Eagles used contributions from their entire lineup and setter Yadhira Anchante posted 25 assists, 14 digs, two service aces and a pair of blocks.

"I thought Yadhi was really balanced," Theis said. "She used some right-side stuff early to open up out of the back row. She did a really nice job distributing and making it really tough for Eastern to get stops or get double blocks up. A lot of that was our first touches too. I thought our pass and dig game was really high quality."

Eastern Illinois (28-5) hit a combined .111 (20-19-99) and was swept for the first time this season. Giovana Larregui Lopez led the Panthers with 10 kills.

Marquette middle blocker Carsen Murray posted a match-best nine blocks, while right-side hitter Anastasija Svetnik notched four along with five kills.

NOTABLE:

Jenna Reitsma hit .455 (5-0-11) in the first set and did not record a hitting error on her first 22 swings of the night.
Marquette's nine aces are one shy of a program record in an NCAA tournament match. MU posted 10 in a sweep of High Point in the 2018 NCAA First Round.
In total, MU is 9-11 all-time in NCAA tournament play since making its debut appearance in 2011 at the University of Illinois.
Marquette has made seven 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.
Marquette is 5-11 in the tournament away from the Al McGuire Center and won its first NCAA First Round road match since 2019 (over Dayton in West Lafayette).
Thursday's win is MU's third NCAA tournament road win in the tenure of head coach Ryan Theis (2023 over EIU, 2019 over Dayton and 2015 over UNI in Minneapolis). MU has never beaten a tournament host (0-6).
The Golden Eagles played an NCAA match 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.
MU libero Sarah Kushner had 12 digs and a career-high nine assists. Kushner, who transferred to MU in the summer after playing four seasons at Illinois State, won an NCAA tournament match for the first time. The Naperville, Illinois, native fell to Purdue in her last trip to the NCAA First Round with Illinois State in 2021. She had five kills, six digs and two blocks in that match as an outside hitter.
Thirteen of the 16 teams that Theis has led as head coach have earned NCAA tournament berths and seven 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.
EIU made its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2001 when Theis was an assistant for the Panthers. 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.
EIU junior outside hitter Kaitlyn Flynn was a teammate of MU sophomore Ella Holmstrom at Guilford High School in Rockford, Illinois. Flynn had seven kills for EIU and Holmstrom had one kill for MU in the second set.
Marquette is 3-11 all-time against the Panthers, though the two programs have played just twice 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 three of the last four 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.

UP NEXT: The Golden Eagles will face third-seeded and No. 12 Purdue in the NCAA Second Round at Holloway Gymnasium on Friday at 6 p.m. Central time. The match airs live on ESPN+.

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).