Volleyball heads to St. John's and Villanova this weekend

Marquette Women's Volleyball match against Butler University on Sunday, October 6, 2024 at the AL McGuire Center in Milwaukee, WI

Photo by: Marquette Athletics

Volleyball heads to St. John's and Villanova this weekend

10/8/2024 1:47:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

MU will face SJU on Friday and VU on Sunday

By: Communications

Match Notes (PDF)

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University women's volleyball team heads to the East Coast this weekend for matches at St. John's on Friday and at Villanova on Sunday.

Friday night's match at Carnesecca Arena is slated for 6 p.m. Central time, while Sunday's match against the Wildcats at Jake Nevin Field House is set for noon CT.

Both contests air live on FloSports, with Johnny Gadamowitz calling the BIG EAST Digital Network production on Friday against the Red Storm and Nick Mantegna and Sam Kuperman sharing announce duties for the Villanova production on Sunday.

Following this weekend's matches, the Golden Eagles return to Milwaukee to begin a three-match homestand and a stretch of six matches in 10 days, beginning on Friday, Oct. 18 against DePaul.

MARQUETTE (7-6, 3-1 BIG EAST)

All five hitters in the MU starting lineup average over 2.00 kills per set, led by outside hitter Aubrey Hamilton at 3.02 with a team-high 136 total terminations. Fellow outside Jenna Reitsma has posted 2.13 kills per set, while Ella Foti (2.18), Carsen Murray (2.17) and Hattie Bray (2.11) are above the mark as well.
Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Natlie Ring landed a career-high 13 kills to lead MU in Sunday's sweep of Butler and is now also at the threshold with 54 kills through 27 sets played.
Hamilton surpassed the 1,000 career kills mark last season and is on pace during conference play to become the 14th player to reach 1,000 kills in a MU uniform. She enters the match at SJU with 960 kills in 78 matches played for MU.
Murray, MU's all-time leader in career hitting percentage, leads the BIG EAST this season with a mark of .406 in all matches. She does not have a hitting error in conference play this fall (27-0-58) and her mark of .466 is two-thousandths of a point behind Villanova's Ozzie Ozonoh (.468) for the league lead in BIG EAST contests.
Setter Yadhira Anchante has a team-best nine double doubles this season and averages 10.13 assists and 3.22 digs per set. She posted her 2,500th career assist at No. 1 Pitt on Sept. 22 and passed Nikki Klingsporn (2009-10; 2,626 assists) on Sunday against Butler for the sixth-highest total in program history (2,648).
Anchante also leads the squad with 148 total digs for an average of 3.19 per set to rank eighth in the BIG EAST.
Sophomore Molly Berezowitz and senior Samantha Naber have split duties as MU's primary libero over the last three weeks and average 3.09 and 2.45 digs per set, respectively. Junior Adriana Studer has served as MU's alternate libero in each match alongside either Berezowitz or Naber.
The Golden Eagles raised their hitting percentage at the start of BIG EAST play and are hitting .241 (628-213-1724) on the year.
MU is ranked 34th in the NCAA's first RPI ranking of the season, which includes matches through Oct. 6.
Marquette began conference play with the seventh-toughest strength of schedule in the country according to the NCAA Division I Massey Ratings.
Eight of MU's nine nonconference matches so far this fall have come against squads that competed in the 2023 NCAA tournament.

ST. JOHN'S (13-5, 2-2 BIG EAST)

The Red Storm began BIG EAST play at 11-3, but dropped both matches last weekend to fall to .500 in league play at 2-2.
St. John's was swept at both Xavier and DePaul last weekend and its other losses were a five-set decision against UC Santa Barbara and sweeps at the hands of Arizona State and Duke in mid-September. SJU hit .176 against the Musketeers and just .080 against the Blue Demons last week.
The versatile Erin Jones leads SJU with 3.81 kills per set on a hitting mark of .293 with 2.84 digs and 0.53 blocks per set and a team-best 26 service aces. Jones has also notched 108 assists (second on the team) as the squad's secondary setter.
The Red Storm boasts a collection of impressive arms in addition to Jones in European veterans Giorgia Walther, Lucrezia Lodi and Magda Stambrowska. Walther sits second to Jones with 3.63 kills per frame, while Stambrowska is hitting .303 to pace the squad.
Polish setter Wiktoria Kowalczyk averages 9.85 assists per set and has notched 34 total blocks, while Ludovica Zola is the team's block leader with 65 for an average of 1.03 per frame.
Libero Rashanny Solano Smith ranks fourth in the BIG EAST with 3.96 digs per set.
Head coach Joanne Persico is in her 31st season at St. John's.
St. John's is the only other team outside of Marquette and Creighton to claim a BIG EAST title since the league reformed prior to the 2013 campaign. The Red Storm defeated both MU and CU on their way to a 2019 league tournament crown at the Al McGuire Center.

SERIES HISTORY WITH SJU:

Marquette is 25-9 all-time against the Red Storm and all 34 meetings have come since MU joined the BIG EAST for the 2005 season. SJU won the first three meetings in the series, but MU has won 25 of the last 31 contests.
MU went just 1-2 against St. John's last season, including a regular season sweep of SJU at the Al McGuire Center, five-set losses in Queens during the regular season and at the Al in the BIG EAST semifinals.
MU lost in last year's league semis despite hitting .444 in a dominating 25-11 first set win. MU also took a 2-1 match advantage after three sets and led 5-1 to open the fifth, before falling 15-13. Hamilton led MU in the match with 19 kills, while Lodi had a match-best 20 for SJU.
The Red Storm captured a five-set victory in the first matchup last season in Queens on Oct. 14, 2023. MU won the second and third sets for the match advantage before SJU stormed back for a 25-22 win in the fourth and held off MU, 15-13, in the fifth. Jones posted a triple-double in that SJU win with 22 kills, 17 digs and 14 assists, in addition to an ace and four blocks.

VILLANOVA (11-4, 4-0 BIG EAST)

The Wildcats have won their last eight matches following consecutive losses to Old Dominion and Yale on Sept. 8 and 13, respectively. VU also opened the season with back-to-back losses against Santa Clara and Notre Dame on the West Coast.
Outside hitter Abby Harrell leads the Wildcats with 3.28 kills per set and averages 2.17 digs and 0.49 blocks per frame.
In addition to Harrell, three other players average above 2.00 kills per set, including Campbell McKinnon (2.44), Cat Young (2.33) and Tara Garvey (2.06).
Villanova is hitting .225 for the year and .278 in BIG EAST play through four matches. The Wildcats hit .346 in last Sunday's sweep of Xavier.
Head coach Josh Steinbach is in his 18th season at VU.

SERIES HISTORY WITH VU:

Marquette holds a 24-4 edge in the all-time series, which began when MU entered the BIG EAST for the 2005 campaign.
MU has won each of the last 11 matches after a five-set loss at Jake Nevin on Oct. 14, 2017.
The Golden Eagles hit .440 in the 2023 BIG EAST opener to sweep Villanova at the Al McGuire Center and Hattie Bray notched a career-high 11 blocks to become the first MU player to reach the mark in a sweep in over two decades.
MU also hit .350 to defeat VU in four sets last November at Jake Nevin.

BIG EAST PLAY REACHES 20 YEARS

The 2024 campaign is MU's 20th in the BIG EAST Conference and 50th overall.
Marquette has won at a 75.3 percent clip (226-74) since joining the league and is 141-30 (.825) in BIG EAST matches under head coach Ryan Theis.
MU is 102-15 (.8712) in BIG EAST play over the last seven seasons (2017-23) under Theis, including consecutive regular season league titles in 2021 (16-2), 2022 (17-1) and 2023 (16-2).
The Golden Eagles are picked to finish second in the BIG EAST Conference preseason coaches' poll and four MU student-athletes were named to the league's preseason team, led by Hamilton, a unanimous selection. Anchante and middle blockers Bray and Carsen Murray also received preseason recognition.
Marquette is a three-time reigning BIG EAST regular season champion, has won four league titles overall (2013, 2021, 2022, 2023) and made its 12th NCAA tournament appearance in the last 13 seasons last fall (MU's lone NCAA miss during 2020-21 was due to the tightened tournament field).

2024 MARKS MU'S 50TH SEASON

The 2024 campaign marks MU's 50th season of competition and 20th season in the BIG EAST Conference.
The first season of women's volleyball at Marquette was played during the 1975-76 academic year and MU has grown into a perennial NCAA tournament participant and four-time BIG EAST champion.
The Golden Eagles have qualified for each of the last 12 NCAA tournaments with full 64-team fields and have advanced to the NCAA Second Round seven times and own a pair of NCAA Regional Semifinal appearances.

SEASON TICKETS ON SALE FOR $40

Season tickets for Marquette's full 14-match regular season schedule are available to purchase for just $40. They can be bought online or by calling the Marquette Ticket Office at 414-288-GOMU (4668).
New this fall is a Coaches' Corner pre-match talk for season ticket members with head coach Ryan Theis and other members of the MU staff. The first session was held on Sept. 6 prior to the Kansas match and the final one is scheduled for Nov. 10 (Creighton). The event begins at a quarter-after the hour prior to each match and cost $20, which includes refreshments and light snacks. More information and a registration link will be communicated with season ticket members prior to each contest.

Keep up with the Marquette University women's volleyball program through social media by following on X (@MarquetteVB) and Instagram (@MarquetteVB) and 'liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteVolleyball).