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Recap: Volleyball Loses a Rough Match to No. 19 Marquette, 3-0

Date: October 22, 2022

By: Andrew Raccuglia

The Hall huddles up to gameplan during a timeout.

Seton Hall Athletics

The Seton Hall Volleyball team (13-8, 4-5 Conf.) couldn’t catch a break against the No. 19 Marquette Golden Eagles (17-2, 8-1 Conf.) on Friday night, marking their fourth-straight loss.

The Pirates were swept in three sets (14-25, 11-25, 11-25) at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee, WI, and fell to sixth place in the Big East Conference standings.

Bianca Bucciarelli had a team-high eight kills and seven digs, while Taylor Jakubowski also earned a team-high 13 assists and six digs, but their efforts were not enough to beat the No. 19 team in the nation.

On Marquette’s side, Jenna Reitsma had a match-high nine kills on 20 total attacks, and Yadhira Anchante had a whopping 27 assists to go with a perfect four kills for four attacks. Carly Skrabak also recorded 11 digs and four assists for the Golden Eagles.  

The first set started off with a Jenna Walsh kill, followed by a service error from Jakubowski, and Marquette scored seven of the next eight points for an 8-2 lead, prompting an early timeout from the Hall.

With their lead stabilized, the two teams went back-and-forth for roughly every other point before Marquette expanded their 16-8 lead with six unanswered points. Another shorter back-and-forth then led to a Set One win for the Golden Eagles, 25-14.

Despite only one service error compared to Marquette’s four in the first set, and four more attack attempts than Marquette’s 29, Seton Hall had a .061% hitting percentage compared to the Golden Eagles’ .310%.

The next set started out with the Pirates taking the first three, but the Golden Eagles took nine of the next eleven points, taking a 9-5 lead and prompting another timeout for the Hall.

A Bucciarelli kill made it 12-8, but Marquette made a 10-1 run, capped by a service ace from the Golden Eagles’ Anastasija Svetnik. With an overwhelming 22-9 lead, Marquette capped off Set Two with an easy 25-11 win.

The Hall had 30 attack attempts in Set Two, as well as eight attack errors compared to Marquette’s three. They were limited to a -.067% hitting percentage, unlike Marquette’s match-best .455%.

The third and final set was not much better for the Pirates. With the set tied at 3-3, the Golden Eagles began to pull away with an 8-5 lead until another Bucciarelli kill kept the score close. A Perri Lucas kill got the Pirates within two at 11-9, until Marquette went on another 4-0 run, triggering a timeout at 15-9.

Bucciarelli and Lucas scored two of the next three points out of the timeout, but they would be the Hall’s last points of the match. Marquette scored six straight, causing another Pirates timeout at 22-11, and the Golden Eagles put the set and the match away at 25-11.

In Set Three, Seton Hall had nine attack errors unlike Marquette’s two, and the Golden Eagles recorded four blocks, holding the Pirates to a match-low -.100% hitting percentage in comparison to their .357%.

Overall, the Pirates had a hitting percentage of -.032% for the match, unlike Marquette’s .367%. Seton Hall had a total of 25 points across the match, as well as 20 assists and 27 digs. The Golden Eagles recorded 47 total points, 39 assists, and 46 digs.

The problems that showed for the Pirates were a total of eight service errors and three reception errors, over Marquette’s four and two, respectively.

While they had 93 total attacks in contrast with the Golden Eagles’ 79, Marquette had 46 digs to show that they have outstanding defense on the excellent kill-making abilities of Bucciarelli, Walsh, and Lucas.   

It was never going to be easy for the Pirates to win this match against such a nationally elite team, but it did not come at a great time after losing the previous three matches, the first of which was also against Marquette on the Pirates’ home court on Oct. 8.

With the loss, Seton Hall is now tied with Butler (10-11, 4-5 Big East) for sixth place in the conference standings as of Saturday morning before the next Big East gameday begins.

After narrowly beating DePaul (6-15, 2-7 Big East) in five sets on Oct. 7, a victory at McGrath-Phillips Arena in Chicago on Saturday afternoon could help turn the Pirate ship around and potentially save their season with some momentum to make their home court battle against No. 18 Creighton (17-3, 9-0 Big East) on Oct. 28 at least somewhat competitive.

The rematch with DePaul begins at 5 p.m. EST on Saturday, Oct. 22. Keep it locked on WSOU.net for more coverage of the Seton Hall Volleyball team throughout the 2022 season, including a live call with John Makuch and Matthew Soetebeer for the match against Creighton next Friday.

Andrew Raccuglia can be reached at andrew.raccuglia@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, Volleyball

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