Volleyball Advances to BIG EAST Championship Match

Saturday, November 22

Milwaukee, Wis.

3:30 p.m. ET

Xavier University

26-3,14-2Big East

Villanova

20-8,11-5Big East

Villanova

Xavier

Volleyball Advances to BIG EAST Championship Match

11.22.25 | Volleyball

Box Score

The Musketeers will face No. 1 seed Creighton on Sunday afternoon for the title game.

By: Abbey Curtis, Xavier Athletic Communications

MILWAUKEE - The No. 2 seed Xavier volleyball team swept No. 3 seed Villanova to advance to the program's second-ever BIG EAST Championship match.

The Musketeers advance to the BIG EAST Championship for the first time since 2016 where they also faced Creighton.

XU now has 26 wins on the season, the most in program history since 1993. The Musketeers have won 14 of their last 15 matches.

Both teams struggled offensively in the opening set with both sides hitting under .100. The Musketeers combined for eight blocks in the frame to silence the VU attackers. Xavier took advantage of an 8-0 run early in the set to take a healthy lead that they would not relinquish and won the set 25-17.

Villanova bounced back in the second set to take an early 6-0 lead, but Emma Grace powered the Musketeer offense with six kills for a team .364 hitting percentage. XU had another five blocks in the second frame, with three coming from Margo Kemp. Xavier closed out the set on a 7-1 run with three kills from Grace to take a 25-19 win.

Grace racked up another six kills in the final set while Macy Hatkevich dished out an impressive 16 assists. The Musketeers led by as much as eight in the third set and closed out the match with a 25-18 victory.

Xavier improves to 26-3 overall with the win and will face nationally-ranked No. 12 Creighton on Sunday afternoon for the BIG EAST title.

notables

Unanimous All-BIG EAST selection Emma Grace led the way with 14 kills and 11 digs for her 44th career double-double.
Margo Kemp had eight kills on zero errors for a .500 clip to go along with eight blocks.
All-Freshman selection McKinley Boehm followed up with six kills and three blocks of her own.
All-league setter Macy Hatkeivch dished out 32 assists with eight digs and five blocks.
Elouise Czajkowski led the Musketeers defensively with 13 digs.
Kasey Quenichet contributed all four of Xavier's aces.
The Musketeers combined for 52 digs, their most in a three-set match this season.
Grace's 14 kills is tied for the most individual kills in a sweep this season.
Quenichet is one of four players this season to have four aces in just three sets of play.

up next

Xavier will face No. 1 seed Creighton in the BIG EAST Championship on Sunday afternoon. First serve is set for 2:00 p.m. CST/3:00 p.m. EST in Milwaukee.