NCAA volleyball tournament: Scouting Marquette’s opponents

MILWAUKEE – The 16^th-ranked Marquette volleyball team has earned a ninth-consecutive NCAA Tournament berth and will travel to West Lafayette, Indiana for the first and second rounds. The Golden Eagles are set to take on Dayton on Friday, Dec. 6 at 3:30 p.m. CT with the winner to face either No. 16 Purdue or Wright State on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 6 p.m. CT.MU owns a 27-5 record heading into the tournament, one-win shy of its program-record 28 wins set in the 2018 campaign. This is the ninth straight season with 20-or more victories.BIG EAST Player of the Year Allie Barber leads the team with 4.67 kills per set, which ranks 15^th in the NCAA, while the Golden Eagles ranks second in the country as a team with a combined 14.90 kills per set. MU also ranks second in the NCAA dishing out 14.16 combined assists as a team.OPPONENTS:Dayton (22-8, 13-1 Atlantic-10): The Flyers are coming off an Atlantic-10 Tournament Championship performance as they defeated VCU 3-1. Leading the way for Dayton is redshirt sophomore Jamie Peterson who owns 511 kills on the year, 16th in the NCAA. She was also named A-10 Player of the Year while averaging 4.76 kills per set. Rookie Amelia Moore was named A-10 Freshman of the Year as she had a hitting percentage of .296. Other notable players include Josie Vondran who is averaging 4.70 assists per set, and Libero Maura Collins who averages 4.36 digs per set. Some noteworthy games on the year for the Flyers include a victory over No. 14 Michigan on Sep. 7, a loss to No. 25 Louisville on Sep. 1, and a tight 3-2 loss to No. 10 Florida on Aug. 31.Dayton earns a 20-7 all-time record in the series with Marquette, though the Golden Eagles won the most recent meeting, a 3-0 sweep on 8/29/15 in Ames, Iowa.Purdue (22-7, 14-6 BIG TEN): Should the Golden Eagles face the Boilermakers, they will battle a team that has won seven of its last eight, the only loss coming at No. 8 Penn State. Caitlyn Newton leads the Boilermakers offensively with 389 total kills and 3.78 kills per set. Haley Bush ranks 30^th in the country with 1,182 total assists. On defense, Marissa Hornung racks up 3.85 digs per set. A few notable victories for Purdue include vs. No. 5 Nebraska, at No. 16 Kentucky, and at No. 23 Michigan.Saturday would mark the third all-time meeting between Marquette and Purdue and the Boilermakers hold a 2-0 lead in the series.Wright State (24-5, 13-3 Horizon League): Wright State is coming off of a tough 3-1 loss to Northern Kentucky in the Horizon League Championship but was on an eight-game win-streak prior. The Raiders are led by the duo of Celia Powers and Taylor Gibson who average 2.70 and 2.61 kills per set, respectively. Lainey Stephenson is another notable player as the averages 6.35 digs per set and has recorded over 1,000 kills on the season. This is the first NCAA Tournament appearance for the Raiders.Wright State owns a 2-1 record in the all-time series with the Golden Eagles.