Amanda Boyer/Photography Editor
The Seton Hall Pirates women’s volleyball team extended their winning streak to five games as they defeated the Marquette Golden Eagles in four sets (27-25, 19-25, 27-25, 25-16).
The victory moved the Pirates (24-6, 12-3) one step closer to earning their first Big East Tournament berth since 2011. Seton Hall can clinch a spot with a win tomorrow night against DePaul or a with an Xavier loss.
“It’s huge. It’s been our goal all season long,” head coach Allison Yaeger said. “Things have to fall into our place tonight with a Xavier loss, but otherwise if we win tomorrow we clinch. And it’s a big deal it’s been our main goal all season.”
Senior Stacey Manthorpe lead the way for the Hall with a team high 19 kills and 16 digs to earn her 19th double-double of the season.
The Pirates came from behind after trailing 22-24 in the first set to earn a 27-25 victory. The blue and white were dominated in the second set 19-25, but they came out looking like a different team after the intermission.
“We have a sense of urgency in the third set, Yeager said. “We have to come out and we have to come out with guns blazing. One team needed momentum to get going and I knew that could be us. We came out, we played really good volleyball, we took the lead early and we just kept chipping away every single point.
Seton Hall did not drop another set, edging out a 27-25 third set victory. The Pirates did not trail at all in the fourth set as they cruised to a 25-16 win over the Golden Eagles (22-7, 12-4).
Senior Shelbey Manthorpe led the team in assists yet again with a game high 42 to go along with 24 digs and eight kills.
Sophomore Dani Schroeder was also effective at the net recording a season high 16 kills in the win.
In their second meeting of the year Seton Hall earned their first victory over Marquette since 2009 while revenging a 3-1 (34-32, 20-25, 23-25, 33-35) loss this season in Milwaukee.
The Pirates will take on DePaul Saturday who currently sits at the bottom of the Big East, but it is important not to look past them said Yaeger.
“We need to remain focused,” she said. “We need to have a sense of urgency. We can’t look past DePaul even though they’re at the bottom of the conference. We need to come out and play like we did tonight with the same energy. As soon as you look past a team in this conference, that’s when they sneak up on you.”
Match time is set for 5:00 p.m. tomorrow in Walsh Gymnasium. The Pirates plan to honor six graduating seniors in the regular season home finale.
Matt Zeigafuse can be reached at matthew.zeigafuse@student.shu.edu or on twitter @mattzeigafuse
