BYU Stays Undefeated, USC Earns First Marquette Invite Win

  0 Jil Price Igara | September 08th, 2018 | College - Women's Indoor, News, Pac 12, WCC

Marquette Invitational

  • Sept. 7-9, 2018
  • Milwaukee, Wis.

Top-ranked BYU remained undefeated on the season at 8-0, with a 3-0 Marquette Invitational mark this weekend. Meanwhile, 5th-ranked USC salvaged its weekend, outlasting Syracuse in a 5-set battle to go 1-2.

Match Stats

After falling behind 2-0 to Syracuse, 5th-ranked USC rallied back to register a 5-set victory to recover from its Friday losses to top-ranked BYU and 22nd-ranked Marquette. The Trojans finished the Marquette Invitational with a 1-2 mark.

USC outdid Syracuse in hitting percentage (.257 to .195), kills (65 to 59) and service aces (10 to 4) to record the win.

The opening set contained 6 ties, however, USC only led once, 18-17, as Syracuse held off the Trojans to register the advantage with a 25-22 win.

Syracuse continued to control the match, beginning the second set with a 6-1 stretch. USC brought it back within one, but the Orange responded with 5-straight scores to provide a cushion. The Trojans came back to pull ahead 23-22 late, however, their efforts would not be enough as a 5-2 stretch gave the Orange the 27-25 edge.

The Trojans came out firing in the third set, notching a 6-1 start. USC never surrendered its lead en route to a dominant 25-14 win.

The fourth set was more of the same, as USC established a 10-3 lead early. The Trojans led by as many as 11 and went on to even the match at 2-all with a 24-14 victory.

In the fifth set, both teams fought back and forth through 5 tie scores. With the score knotted at 10, USC notched 5 of the final 8 points to come out on top, 15-13, and register the 5-set victory.

Sophomore Brooke Botkin (28), junior Khalia Lanier (18) and junior Emily Baptista (11) all contributed double-figure kill totals for USC in the win. Freshman Raquel Lazaro posted 53 assists, senior Victoria Garrick notched 14 digs and junior Jasmine Gross logged 8 blocks.

Freshman Polina Shemanova recorded a double-double (20 kills,  10 digs) for the Orange and was joined by senior Santita Ebangwese (11 kills) in double figures. Senior Jalissa Trotter posted 35 assists, junior Aliah Bowllan notched 16 digs and redshirt senior Amber Witherspoon tallied 6 blocks.

Match Stats

Top-ranked BYU halted a 4-match win streak, defeating 22nd-ranked Marquette in 4 sets Saturday night. The Cougars have yet to lose to the Golden Eagles, owning a 3-0 advantage in the all-time series following the win.

BYU went undefeated on the weekend, notching sweeps against 5th-ranked USC and Syracuse on Friday inside Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee, Wis. The Golden Eagles wrap up the tournament against Syracuse on Sunday.

Five ties occurred before the Cougars used a 7-3 stretch to pull ahead midway through the first set, 15-11. Marquette came back to knot the score at 21, and used a 4-2 stretch to earn the win, 25-23.

Marquette led by 6 midway through the second set, 15-9, but BYU refused to go away. The Cougars worked their way into a 22-22 tie, before senior Roni Jones-Perry could solidify the 25-22 comeback win with two kills and a service ace.

BYU broke a string of 13 ties to put away the third set, 25-20, with a 9-5 closing rally.

The Cougars maintained the momentum in the fourth set, rattling off 4-straight points to open the frame. BYU never faltered from there, registering a dominant 25-14 win to secure the team result, 3-1.

BYU outdid Marquette in several statistical categories, including attack percentage (.336 to .201), kills (65 to 49), blocks (13 to 8) and service aces (5 to 4), to earn the victory and remain undefeated, 8-0, on the season.

Jones-Perry paced BYU with 23 kills in the match, while junior McKenna Miller contributed 16 kills and hit .438 in the win. Senior Lyndie Haddock-Eppich dished out 56 assists, while junior Mary Lake logged 26 digs and sophomore Kennedy Eschenberg posted 8 blocks.

Junior Allie Barber led the Golden Eagles offensively with 16 kills. Sophomore Martha Konovodoff tallied 23 digs and junior Lauren Speckman distributed 27 assists.

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