Marquette volleyball falls to No. 1 Texas in Sweet 16 of NCAA Tournament
One of the best seasons in Marquette volleyball history came to an end Thursday in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
The Golden Eagles were eliminated by top-seeded Texas, 25-14, 25-13, 19-25, 25-17, at Gregory Gym in Austin, Texas.
The Longhorns, ranked No. 1 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, came out fired up in front of a raucous home crowd. Texas went up, 5-0, in the first set before MU coach Ryan Theis called a timeout. Theis took another one with his team down, 11-1.
Texas kept rolling through the first two sets, but the Golden Eagles amped up the service pressure and took the third. Hattie Bray had six kills in the set.
The Longhorns (25-1) responded by pulling away in the fourth and will face Ohio State in the regional final Saturday.
"I'm really proud of our team for the year that they've had," Theis told reporters in Austin. "Excited so many are coming back."
Logan Eggleston led Texas with 15 kills, while Jenna Reitsma had 12 for MU.
"This team, we just have so much fun on the court," Reitsma said. "I think today we just wanted to show who we were and play confident.
"And I think that after being down in the first set and settling in, we said 'Hey, we're a great team and we're here for a reason.' So I think that we started to find our rhythm and kind of pushed back on them. I think it just kind of shows our fight as a team."
The Golden Eagles (29-4), who shared the Big East regular-season title with Creighton, finished with their most victories since the school began playing NCAA Division 1 volleyball in 1986. They also reached the Sweet 16 for just the second time.
MU hosted first- and second-round matches at the Al McGuire Center and finished 18-0 at home.
"The last three weeks have been standing-room only, over 3,000 at home against Creighton," Theis said. "A sellout conference championship (at Creighton) and back-to-back over 2,000 fans for us hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament and then over 4,000 fans here.
"So the last month has been pretty exciting for our group."
MU expects to return most of its key players next season.
"So proud of the program and where its at," Theis said. "The culture of our program. This last month has just been more and more - you're on the news more and more and more and more fans are coming to games - and that's great.
"In Wisconsin we've got a great state for volleyball and Milwaukee's got a great community. I just hope a lot of them saw this and that means in September when we get going next year that we pick up right where we left off and we got 3,000 fans in the building to start off year. I hope we ride that momentum."
More:Marquette and Wisconsin will play first volleyball match at Fiserv Forum next September
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette volleyball loses to No. 1 Texas in NCAA tournament Sweet 16
