Volleyball hosts No. 5 Creighton Sunday on FS1

Match Notes (PDF)

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University women's volleyball team hosts No. 5 Creighton on Sunday afternoon at the Al McGuire Center with first place in the BIG EAST Conference standings on the line.

The match airs live on FS1 at 2 p.m. Central time with Noah Reed (play-by-play) and Anna Connolly (analyst) on the call from Milwaukee. Live statistics are available through GoMarquette.com.

MU encourages all fans in attendance to wear white against the Bluejays and the first 150 fans receive free white Marquette Volleyball t-shirts. The concession stands will also offer $2 cans of Third Space Brewing's new Marquette Golden Ale, for the first 200 sold.

The first 100 students receive free Qdoba burritos.

Prior to Sunday's match at 1:15 p.m. is the final Coach's Corner with Ryan Theis in the Academic Center. Information on the event has been conveyed to season ticket holders, but those with questions can reach out to the Marquette Ticket Office at 414-288-GOMU (4668).

MARQUETTE (18-6, 12-1 BIG EAST)

MU secured a spot in the six-team BIG EAST tournament field with its 12th league victory on Wednesday evening at Butler. The league championship begins Wednesday, Nov. 27 in Omaha, Nebraska and the top-two regular season finishers receive a bye into the Friday, Nov. 29 semifinals.
The Golden Eagles are on a 12-match winning streak following a 3-1 loss at Creighton on Oct. 1. MU his hitting .300 over that period which has coincided with Natalie Ring's placement into the front row at outside hitter.
Since the loss in Omaha, Ring is averaging 3.29 kills per set on a hitting mark of .339 (115-23-271). Hamilton is averaging 3.90 kills on .294 hitting with 2.51 digs per set.
Hamilton leads the Golden Eagles with 3.46 kills per set in all matches with 2.31 digs and 0.63 blocks.
Hamilton became the 14th player to reach 1,000 in a MU uniform in the Oct. 18 win over DePaul with a career-high 28 kills.
Ring is now second on the squad with 2.64 kills per set in all matches on a hitting line of 156-39-397 (.295).
MU head coach Ryan Theis posted the 250th win of his Marquette career in the Nov. 3 match against St. John's. Wednesday's win at Butler was his 150th in BIG EAST action and he has 393 wins in his NCAA Division I head coaching career.
Setter Yadhira Anchante has helped MU hit a combined .265 this season and averages 10.15 assists per frame and a team-best 3.27 digs (ninth in the BIG EAST in all matches).
Anchante became the fourth player in program history to reach 3,000 career assists in Sunday's match against St. John's and is currently fourth all-time at MU with 3,035 in 84 matches.
Anchante has a team-best 17 double doubles this season and averages a career high in digs per set.
Middle blocker Carsen Murray, MU's all-time leader in career hitting percentage, leads the BIG EAST this season with a mark of .389 in all matches.
Sophomore Molly Berezowitz and senior Samantha Naber split duties as MU's primary libero early in the season, but Naber has seen her playing time increase during conference play. In MU's 13 league matches, Naber is averaging 3.71 digs per set to rank seventh among players in the BIG EAST.
The Golden Eagles have raised their hitting percentage since the start of BIG EAST play and are hitting .265 on the year.
MU is ranked 21st in the NCAA's fifth RPI ranking of the season, which includes matches through Nov. 3.
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 11 nonconference matches have come against squads that competed in the 2023 NCAA tournament.

No. 5 CREIGHTON (21-2, 12-0 BIG EAST)

CU hosts Butler on Friday evening before heading to Milwaukee for Sunday's contest.
The Bluejays have won 28-straight sets and have only dropped one frame in conference play, a 25-23 loss to Marquette in the third stanza of the last matchup on Oct. 1 in Omaha.
CU is on a 14-match winning streak.
Creighton's only two losses have come in five sets at a pair of top-five teams: Sept. 10 at then-No. 5 Nebraska and Sept. 15 at then-No. 4 Louisville.
The Jays lead the BIG EAST in every statistical category except digs per set, and rank in the top-six nationally in hitting percentage (second; .315), opponent hitting percentage (third; .130), kills per set (fifth; 14.47) and assists per set (sixth; 13.39).
In league play, CU is hitting an astronomical .366 to lead the BIG EAST. It's nearly 90 points higher than MU's mark of .278, which is second.
Individually, CU has BIG EAST statistical leaders in assists (Kendra Wait, 11.12), service aces (Norah Sis, 0.43) and blocks (Kiara Reinhardt, 1.47). Wait ranks sixth nationally in assists per set and Reinhardt is 10th in NCAA Division I in blocks per frame.
Reinhardt is from Cedarburg, Wisconsin and is one of three Wisconsinites on the CU roster, alongside Kentucky-transfer Elise Goetzinger from Blue Mounds, Wisconsin and freshman Sophia Wendlick from Milwaukee.
Wait, Sis and Ava Martin (3.52 kills per set) are all on the AVCA Player of the Year Watch List. Sis (.300) and Martin (.302) are each hitting .300-or-above this season on nearly 700 swings apiece.
The Bluejays are in search of an 11th straight BIG EAST regular season crown.
Kirsten Berthal Booth is in her 22nd season as head coach of the Bluejays.

SERIES HISTORY WITH CU:

Marquette is 7-28 all-time against the Bluejays with all but five of those meetings coming after CU joined the BIG EAST for the 2013 campaign.
Creighton won the meeting earlier this season in Omaha, 3-1, on Oct. 1. The Bluejays hit .275 and were led by a match-high 15 kills from Ava Martin, while Norah Sis had 14. Elise Goetzinger posted 12 kills and six blocks, while CU setter Kendra Wait had 47 assists, 11 digs and five blocks. Murray and Ella Foti led MU with nine kills apiece, while Naber had 20 digs.
The two squads split the two regular season matches in each of the previous two seasons and each team won both matches on its home court.
MU and CU have shared the BIG EAST regular season title in each of the last three years (2021-23).
Outside of the St. John's surprise run to the BIG EAST tournament title in 2019, only MU and Creighton have won league titles since the conference reformed in 2013.

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 76.1 percent clip (235-74) since joining the league and is 150-30 (.833) in BIG EAST matches under head coach Ryan Theis.
MU is 112-15 (.882) 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).

MU ON MILESTONE WATCH

Kills (1,000): Hamilton at 1,111 in MU career, Reitsma (854), Murray (744), Bray (690)
Digs (1,000): Anchante (884), Reitsma (867)
Assists (3,000): Anchante (3,035)
Blocks (400): Murray (394)
Aces (100): Reitsma (141), Foti (91)

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.

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).