Marquette was the 2-0 winner over Roanoke-Benson when they last played one another back in October of 2023, but their luck changed this time around. The Marquette Crusaders fell just short of the Roanoke-Benson Rockets by a score of 2-1 on Tuesday. While the Crusaders didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Rockets 25-19 in the first set.
The 2-1 doesn't really show just how close this match was: all the sets Marquette lost were decided by three points or less. The match finished with set scores of 19-25, 25-23, 25-23.
Marquette's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Hunter Hopkins, who had five aces, a kill, and 16 assists, and Kinley Rick, who had six kills, five digs, three aces, and a block. The dominant performance gave Hopkins a new career-high in aces. The team also got some help courtesy of Kealey Rick, who had three aces and 14 assists.
Even though they lost, Marquette was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 12 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least seven aces in nine consecutive games.
Marquette's defeat ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 19-9. As for Roanoke-Benson, the victory (which was their fourth in a row) raised their record to 11-21.
Marquette has already played their next matchup, a 2-0 loss against Woodland on the 24th. As for Roanoke-Benson, they also didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next match, a 2-0 defeat against Seneca on the 24th.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
