Nov. 16, 2006

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Marquette volleyball team (16-11, 8-6 BIG EAST) who earned the seventh seed in the BIG EAST Conference Tournament will head back to Louisville, Ky., and open conference tournament play against second seed and No. 7 Louisville on Friday, November 18 at 6 p.m. EST at the Kentucky International Convention Center. Should Marquette win the match, it will play the winner of the Syracuse/Pittsburgh match on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 3:30 p.m. The championship match, with an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament up for grabs, is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 20 at 3 p.m.

"We are excited and we are ready for this weekend," said head coach Pati Rolf. "Our goal is to win the conference championship and make it to the NCAA Tournament and on that road is Louisville. We know are going to have to play them to get in order to get to the Tournament (NCAA), so we would rather play them first while we are energized and focused than meeting them down the road. I think it will turnout to be a great match in a very competitive environment."

The seventh-ranked Cardinals (24-1, 13-1 BIG EAST) ended the regular season as BIG EAST Co-Champions with Notre Dame. Louisville has had a near perfect season winning 24 of its 25 matches. Its lone blemish came at the hands of league foe no. 7 Notre Dame, but since the loss, the Cardinals have won its last five matches.

Senior OH Lena Ustymenko leads the Cardinals and the conference with 5.24 kills per game and Jennifer Hoffman stands second in the BIG EAST in hitting averaging .438 per game ranking her third in the nation. Louisville leads the BIG EAST in kills (16.84 kpg) and hitting percentage (33.8). Defensively, the Cardinals are tops in the BIG EAST in blocks (3.49 bpg) and stand fifth in the nation in that category, while holding its opponents this season to hit just 14.2 percent per game.

The Golden Eagles and the Cardinals are familiar foes as the two teams have met 19 times prior to Friday's match and 16 times in their 10 seasons in the Conference USA. Last season, the Cardinals ended Marquette's season in a 3-0 sweep at the Conference USA Championships and advanced as far as the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament.

"They are extremely competitive, but always a gracious team to play," said Rolf. "We have been preparing for them for over two weeks now due to just playing them last weekend, and I think this year out of the four years I have been at Marquette, this is the most prepared any team is to play them."

Marquette wrapped up its regular season losing at Louisville, 3-1, before defeating Cincinnati, 3-0, last weekend. The Golden Eagles enter the tournament winning six of its last seven matches. Its lone loss came at Louisville last Saturday. Senior Theresa Coughlin leads Marquette with 4.09 kills per game while sophomore outside hitter/ middle blocker Kim Todd has posted an average of 3.43 kpg and .70 blocks per game.

Junior outside hitter Jamie Mueller grabbed her second BIG EAST Honor Roll selection this week after a weekend of stellar play at Louisville and Cincinnati. Mueller recorded back-to-back matches of double figured kills slamming 23 against the Cardinals and 10 against the Bearcats, while hitting 34.2 and 33.3 percent, respectively. The junior outside hitter notched her 12th double double of the season adding 14 digs at Cincinnati. With Mueller's honor, the Golden Eagles have tallied three Player of the Week Honors and five Honor Roll Selections.

The Louisville/Marquette match at 6 p.m. will be aired live locally in Louisville on WHAS. All matches can be tracked live via gametracker on the BIG EAST's website www.BIGEAST.org

About the BIG EAST Tournament

Click here for 2005 BIG EAST Tournament Bracket.

The eight BIG EAST teams who advanced to the conference championship will play quarterfinal matches on Friday with fourth seed Cincinnati (9-5) meeting fifth seed St. John's (9-5) kicking off the action at 10 a.m. EST. No. 1 seed Notre Dame (13-1) will face No. 8 Villanova (7-7) at 12:30 p.m. EST, no. 3 Syracuse (9-5) and no. 6 Pittsburgh (8-6) will match up at 3:30 p.m. EST, and Marquette and no. 2 Louisville will wrap things up at 6 p.m. EST.

Semifinal matches will highlight Saturday with winners of the St. John's/Cincinnati match meeting the winner of the Notre Dame/Villanova match at 1 p.m. EST, and the Syracuse/Pitt winner will face the winner of Louisville/Marquette match at 3:30 p.m. The BIG EAST Championship match will commence on Sunday at 3 p.m. EST with the winner earning the automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.