(MARQUETTE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS) CEDAR FALLS, IOWA – The No. 25 Marquette University women’s volleyball team rolled to a three-set sweep (25-23, 25-14, 25-15) over undefeated Drake on Sunday evening at the McLeod Center on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa.
The Golden Eagles (3-1) picked up their third win of the year over a Missouri Valley Conference team, while Drake (4-1) suffered its first defeat.
“It’s all improved offensively from a week ago and hopefully it continues,” MU head coach Ryan Theis said. “We just have a lot of newness out there. Bringing Taylor (Wolf) into the fold as a setter and her starting to practice with the hitters Jan. 6 hasn’t been too much time to get setter-hitter relationships figured out. So we found some pretty significant issues the first weekend that I thought we addressed at practice throughout the week and those things got better. I was pleased that we were more efficient. Today I thought our defenders did a pretty good job behind the block running balls down. Drake makes you earn it.”
Sophomore middle blocker Claire Nuessmeier started the scoring in the first set with a kill, but the Bulldogs went on to take an early lead. MU tied the match at 11 and eventually went ahead 21-20 on a Savannah Rennie and Taylor Wolf block. Hope Werch closed out the frame with a kill to hand MU a 25-23 victory.
The Golden Eagles scored the first five points of the second frame and jumped out to an 11-2 lead. Freshman Carsen Murray and sophomore Megan Lund each got the opportunity to play late in the 25-14 Marquette win.
MU kept its momentum rolling in a 25-15 third set victory to complete the sweep. Portland State transfer Caroline Dragani subbed in for Claire Mosher at setter with MU up 21-13 and the Golden Eagles closed the match on a Katie Schoessow ace.
“We’ve had a tendency to give away a lot of points,” Theis said. “We try to score 19 points a game and try and give away under eight, but we’ve been we’ve been closer to 10. If you compare it to basketball it would be like the turnover game, so we call it unforced errors and so we try and limit that in some capacity and we’ve just been pretty high. So today there weren’t as many volleys because the scores got a little lopsided in sets two and three, but regardless, we took care of it much better on our end and gave away less points.”
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