Marquette Volleyball's Press Release from Friday's Big Win Over Louisviille

MILWAUKEE - The Marquette University women's volleyball team completed a thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 victory (23-25, 16-25, 25-19, 25-19, 16-14) over Louisville Friday evening at the Al McGuire Center and will play Cincinnati Sunday at 2 p.m. for the BIG EAST regular season title.

The Golden Eagles (21-7, 11-2 BIG EAST) have won a school-record 14-straight matches, including 11 in league play, and were led by 16 kills from senior middle hitter Rabbecka Gonyo. Sophomore Danielle Carlson notched a career-high 15 kills, while junior outside hitter Ciara Jones added 14. Gonyo and sophomore Kelsey Mattai each had seven blocks and senior Nikki Klingsporn added five blocks to her 57 assists.

Louisville (17-7, 11-2 BIG EAST) was led by 15 kills from outside hitter Lola Arslanbekova and freshman right-side Emily Juhl.

After dropping the first two sets of the match 25-23 and 25-16, the Golden Eagles headed into the locker room to refocus and came out a different team.

MU hit .162 (24 kills, 13 errors, 68 attacks) through the opening two sets, but responded to hit a combined .429 (14-2-28) in the third frame with five kills from Jones and four from Carlson. The Golden Eagles jumped to a 2-0 lead in the third and led the entire way before a 25-19 victory. Louisville hit only .033 (10-9-30) after notching a mark of .373 through the first two sets.

The Cardinals again had trouble at the net in the fourth set and registered 10 errors with only 11 kills, leading to another 25-19 defeat. Gonyo led the way for Marquette in the fourth with five kills on only six attacks.

Two kills by Carlson with the final set knotted at 14 led the Golden Eagles to a 16-14 victory after Louisville had fought back from a 13-8 deficit.

Marquette's victory over Louisville is its first since a 3-2 triumph on Oct. 12, 2001 and snaps a 13-match losing streak to the Cardinals.

The Golden Eagles will host Cincinnati Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Al McGuire Center in a match to decide the BIG EAST regular season champion and the conference tournament's No. 1 seed. Gonyo and Klingsporn will be honored Sunday in a pre-match ceremony, while all MU volleyball alumnae will be honored between sets two and three. Sunday is also Marquette's 'Dig Pink' match in support of the Side-Out Foundation's fight against breast cancer.