Big East: St. John’s Rallies Past Xavier in 5; Creighton Moves to 12-0

Big East Conference

• Oct. 27, 2018

St. John’s rallied from down two sets to defeat Xavier at home. Meanwhile Butler overcame a first-set loss to top Seton Hall. Creighton and Marquette kept their spots as the top two in the league standings with sweeps.

Results

• St. John’s def. Xavier 3-2
• Butler def. Seton Hall 3-1
• Creighton def. DePaul 3-0
• Marquette def. Providence 3-0

Updated Standings

St. John’s def. Xavier 3-2 (27-29, 22-25, 25-17, 25-22, 15-9)

• St. John’s moves to 20-8, 9-4 Big East; Xavier falls to 8-16, 6-7 Big East
• Box Score 
• St. John’s Recap / Xavier Recap 

Notables

• “One of the greatest victories in program history on the road down 0-2 at the Cintas Center,” St. John’s head coach Joanne Persico said. “We found a way once again. This team will never surrender, they will never fold, and they don’t point fingers at each other when the pressure is on. It’s not in their DNA.”
• St. John’s picked up its eighth five-set win out of 12 tiebreak matches in 2018.
• The Red Storm outhit Xavier .182 to .147, while holding the Musketeers to a -.105 effort in the decisive fifth set.
• SJU outserved Xavier 6-0 and outdid its foes 69-56 in kills. Xavier boasted a 12-11 edge in blocks.
• Efrosini Alexakou downed a career-high 29 kills and added 18 digs, while hitting .250 to lead St. John’s. Kayley Wood added 15 putaways. Erica Di Maulo turned in a 52-assist, 11-dig double-double. Amanda Sanabia pulled up a career-best 34 digs.
• Laura Grossman (14), Norah Painter (14) and Audrey Adams (10) guided Xavier offensively. Grossman rounded out a double-double with 14 digs and five blocks. Adams put up seven blocks while hitting .240. Five Musketeers posted double-digit dig tallies.
• After splitting the first six points of Set 5, St. John’s outscored Xavier 12-6 down the stretch. Alexakou scored the final four points of the set for the Red Storm.

Butler def. Seton Hall 3-1 (19-25, 25-17, 25-21, 29-27)

• Butler moves to 8-17, 5-8 Big East; Seton Hall falls to 8-18, 3-10 Big East
• Box Score
• Butler Recap / Seton Hall Recap 

Notables

• Butler outblocked Seton Hall 14-5, outhit the Pirates .273 to .216 and outdid them 65-56 in kills.
• The Bulldogs hit .250 or better in the three sets they won, including a .375 effort in Set 2.
• Natalie Ravenell led all hitters with 20 kills, 12 digs and four blocks, while hitting .395 for Butler. Brooke Gregory added 18 kills on a .318 hitting effort. Melody Davidson put up a match-high eight blocks to go with seven kills and  .353 clip.
• Abby Thelen (18) and Caitlin Koska (15) paced Seton Hall. Koska rounded out a double-double with 14 digs. Sophia Coffey posted a 46-assist, 10-dig double-double.
• Seton Hall led by as many as six (19-13) in Set 4 and had a set-point try at 24-21. Butler called timeout and scored four in a row, including a kill and a block by Revenell to earned a match-point attempt at 25-24. After thwarting two more Pirate set point tries at (26-25 and 27-26), the Bulldogs ended the night with a 3-0 run. A block by Davidson and Rachel Klitzing, a Gregory kill and a Seton Hall hitting error gave Butler the 29-27 win and the match.

Creighton def. DePaul 3-0

• Creighton moves to 20-4, 12-0 Big East; DePaul falls to 5-19, 3-10 Big East
• Box Score
• Creighton Recap / DePaul Recap 

Notables

• Creighton played in its 100th regular season Big East match, notching its 91st victory with the sweep.
• The Bluejays posted their 20th win of the season, matching the 2012 team for the earliest date the program had reached the plateau.
• The loss was the fifth straight for DePaul with four coming via sweep.
• Creighton outhit DePaul .379 to .103 and outdid the Blue Demons in kills (46-28), aces (5-3) and blocks (6-3).
• Taryn Kloth (14) and Megan Ballenger (12) notched double-digit kill tallies for the Bluejays. Ballenger hit at a match-best .556 clip (12-2-18) and put up three blocks.
• Emma Price was tops among DePaul players with seven kills on a .385 hitting effort. Four other players tallied four of more kills.
• Creighton built a five-point lead in Set 3 at 13-8. DePaul sliced the margin to two at 17-15 on a Mariah Robinson kill, prompting a Bluejay timeout. Creighton outscored DePaul 8-4 down the stretch including three kills by Kloth to claim the victory.

Marquette def. Providence 3-0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-15)

• Marquette moves to 20-5, 10-2 Big East; Providence falls to 8-15, 2-10 Big East
• Box Score
• Marquette Recap / Providence Recap

Notables

• The win puts Marquette at the 20-win milestone for the ninth straight season.
• Marquette hit at a .413 clip on the night, making just seven hitting errors. Four of the miscues came in Set 1 as the team still managed a .455 effort. Providence hit .223 with 11 miscues. The Golden Eagles also outdid the Friars 50-32 in kills, 7-2 in aces and 5-3 in blocks.
• Alli Barber piled up 19 kills on .548 hitting effort (19-2-31). Hope Werch chipped in 12 kills and two aces, while Jenna Rosenthal pounded down eight kills on 15 errorless swings (.533) and three blocks.
• Addison Root was the lone Friar player with double-digit kills, posting 13. Allison Impellizeri added nine putaways while hitting .471.
• Marquette broke open Set 3 with a 7-0 run, which gave the team a 21-11 advantage. Rosenthal managed two kills and a block in the rally. The teams traded 3-1 runs after that with the latter giving the Golden Eagles the 25-15 win. A Rosenthal kill sealed the victory on Marquette’s second match-point ry.