I thought of something today as I sat in the McGuire Center watching #5 Creighton beat Marquette 3-1 in a Big East matchup with first place and possibly a regular season title on the line.

I found that Marquette’s ceiling as a team this year – and last year too, I think – is very good, so good in fact that a top 10 team will take them deadly seriously and refuse to give them even an ounce of hope. give. .”

Here’s my evidence, not counting Marquette’s 0-6 record against teams currently ranked in the top 10 of the AVCA top 25 poll:

The first set was a very competitive set, something you would expect from a very good volleyball team playing at home against the #5 ranked team in the country. Marquette gained a lead midway through the show and recovered from a 12-10 deficit to take a 16-13 lead. MU increased that margin to 20-15, and held off Creighton from there for an entertaining 25-21 set after the Bluejays pulled within one at 22-21. Neither team had their A-game in the opener, with Marquette hitting .293 and holding Creighton to just .184.

Apparently this irritated Creighton. We saw this when these two teams played in Omaha. Marquette broke through in the third set to force a fourth set, and Creighton destroyed MU to close out the set. Here it was the Bluejays hitting almost .700 as they tore Marquette apart, 25-12.

Fine, but only to the point where you become a top five team, which puts you in a naked choke and ends things very quickly.

Third set: Marquette takes an early 4-3 lead. You blink and the Bluejays are up 11-6. MU managed to cut the lead to two, but the energy expended to get it there meant Creighton was just able to keep Marquette at bay.

Fourth set: Marquette takes a 3-1 lead and loses 25-13. 24-10 the rest of the way. After that start, things turned around with six in a row, and the Bluejays continued to pile points on top of points. They weren’t interested in pretending they were playing a close battle on this day, and as a team developing national championship aspirations, they used that extra equipment to destroy any viability of a Marquette knocked out of the match after that first set win. suffocate. by the Golden Eagles.

Next: At 18-7 this year, Marquette is likely safe from the NCAA Tournament as long as they finish the regular season with wins. They have three RPI teams under 200 and one more top 100 team on the list. MU will complete its home schedule next weekend with two of those sub-200 teams. It’s Georgetown at 7pm on November 15th, followed by Seton Hall at 1pm on November 17th.