Volleyball set for third straight Big East tournament

The Seton Hall volleyball team defeated both St. John's and Con­necticut this weekend to clinch a spot in the Big East Champion­ship for the third straight season.

"It's an amazing feeling to make it again, after missing out freshmen year," senior Meghan Matusiak said. "Now we just worry about where we are in the standings, not if we will get in."

The Pirates, who finished the regular season at 17-12 over­all and 8-6 in conference play, are seeded sixth in the Big East Championship and will face the number three seed and host school, Marquette.

The Golden Eagles defeated DePaul in their final match to fin­ish the season at 22-8 overall and 12-2 in conference play.

In their only matchup this sea­son, Marquette defeated Seton Hall in five sets (22-25, 14-25, 25-21, 25-19, 15-12) in Milwau­kee on Oct. 21.

The Pirates took a close first set and the second by a com­fortable margin, recording nine blocks in the set. The Golden Ea­gles, however, gained some mo­mentum in the third set,and won the next three sets to complete the comeback win.

Currently, Marquette is on a two game winning streak against the Hall with the all-time series record tied at 3-3.

Marquette finished third in Big East Conference play averag­ing 13.46 kills per set, and second with 12.69 assists per set.

Golden Eagle, freshmen Chel­sea Heier led the Big East in as­sists averaging 11.8 assists per set, and junior Danielle Carlson was first in the conference with a .433 hitting percentage.

Needing a win to secure a spot in the Big East Championship on Sunday afternoon, Seton Hall de­feated Connecticut 3-2 on senior day, following a 3-2 victory over St. John's on Saturday.

The Pirates had a chance to win the match in the fourth set against the Huskies but Con­necticut was able to come back and win the set 25-22 to send the match to a fifth and deciding set.

The Hall prevailed in the fifth set winning, 15-12.

A post-match ceremony was held to honor seniors Meghan Bonk, Krissy Wrobel and Matu­siak. After the match, Matusiak was full of emotion and excited to be back in the Big East Champi­onship.

"It's an amazing feeling to make it again, after missing out freshmen year," Matusiak said. "Now, we just worry about where we are in the standings, not if we will get in."

Matusiak was named Big East Player of the Week for her efforts against St. John's and Connecti­cut, averaging 4.9 kills per set including a career high 27 kills versus the Huskies.

The Pirates are looking to build off their Big East Champi­onship appearances the past two seasons, where they lost in the first round both times.

"We struggled with some teams in the middle to bottom of the conference, but we have shown we can play with the top teams," Zeiter said.

The Pirates face Marquette on Friday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m.

Christopher Shedlock can be reached at Christopher.shed­lock@student.shu.edu