Marquette volleyball shows its potential in thrilling loss | Takeaways

The AVCA First Serve college volleyball extravaganza at Fiserv Forum boasted eight-ranked teams playing over four days.

Marquette isn’t one of them, though the Golden Eagles received votes in the first AVCA poll.

But in the last match of the event, MU showed that it might crash the rankings at some point this season by giving No. 2 Texas all it could handle in a five-set thriller that the Longhorns claimed with a 22-25, 25-19, 25-16, 23-25, 15-8 victory on Aug. 24.

“I don’t think a lot of people knew how good our team was or if our team was good,” MU head coach Tom Mendoza said. “Outside of our program.

“So hopefully we had a chance to show not only where we are at now, but our potential throughout the season.”

Nobody knew what to expect from MU because the roster has eight freshmen and two incoming transfers.

“We know Tom because he came from the SEC (at South Carolina),” Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said. “He always does a really nice job.

“We had no scouting report on them. We had no film. We had no idea what systems they were running, so we were kind of thinking on our feet as the night went on.”

The Golden Eagles’ roster seemed to run out of gas after an emotional fourth set. The Longhorns started the fifth on a 6-0 run.

But MU can earn confidence from the loss.

“A lot of people didn't really know what to expect from us,” MU outside hitter Carson Tyler said. “But within our team we knew that we all can rely on one another and every single person is held accountable in our gym.

“So I think there was a lot of confidence in the person next to us. That makes playing very easy because there's communication, there's relationships. We know we can go in and compete with anyone in the gym. We can compete with any team in the gym. And honestly we can beat any team that we play.”

There was no doubt that Tyler is really good at volleyball. She was the MAC player of the year at Ball State before transferring to MU.

But the 5-10 Tyler showed against the Longhorns that she can hang at the highest levels of college level with 18 kills and nine digs, making plays from all six positions on the court.

“It’s great when our best player is so beloved by our team,” Mendoza said. “They want to play for her and she wants to play for them and it makes our life really easy.

“From a volleyball standpoint, she can affect the game in so many different ways. Service and defense. Blocking. It’s fun to see her compete.”

Before fizzling out in the final set, MU showed its fledgling moxie in the fourth set.

The Golden Eagles held a 12-6 lead, but Texas rallied to put some game pressure on MU.

With the Golden Eagles clinging to a 22-21 advantage, freshman middle blocker Molly Welge unleashed a crucial kill that set the stage for a 25-23 win.

“I think we really just like turned it up another level,” Welge said. “The energy on the court was amazing.

“Everyone was communicating well. I think we did a great job with our setter-hitter connections. Like we trust Lu (setter Luanna Markus), she trusts us and then just going for every ball, giving 100%.”

When MU forced that fifth set, it was among the loudest moments of the four days of volleyball at Fiserv. The upper deck was curtained off, but 1,874 fans dotted the lower bowl.

“I thought it was a really cool experience,” Welge said. “Not a lot of teams get to do that.

“So super grateful that we were one of them that got to compete.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette volleyball shows its potential in thrilling loss | Takeaways