The AVCA released their first in-season top 25 poll for the 2025 season on Monday, and, well, it’s not great news for YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles.
After going 2-1 in Hawaii to start the season, including a split against the two teams that were earning preseason votes alongside MU, the Golden Eagles are down to just 18 points worth of votes this week. That’s way off the pace of 94 points in the preseason poll, but that’s what happens when you lose a match. Hawaii going 0-3 in the tournament that they hosted did not help Marquette’s case either after MU beat the Rainbow Wahine in five sets in the first match of the season.
That’s a big dropoff in points, but MU didn’t move that much relative to the other teams. They were the unofficial #29 team in the country in the preseason poll, and now they’re the unofficial #31 team. After losing nearly 80 points, dropping two spots isn’t too bad, all things considered. Marquette is in between Miami at 19 points and Florida State at 17.
Wisconsin remains the top ranked team on Marquette’s schedule this season, holding steady at #8. Elsewhere on the schedule, Florida moves up four spots to #12, Creighton slips one spot to #13 after going 1-2 against three straight ranked opponents to start the season, and Minnesota falls three spots to land at #14 right now. The only other ranked team on the docket this year is Dayton, and their 2-1 start to the season caused them to drop from #24 in the preseason to #25 this week.
Down in Receiving Votes with Marquette, Western Kentucky snagged 20 points and San Diego picked up 14 points following their 3-0 start out in Hawaii. That’s a rough look, seeing as the Toreros had 18 points to start the year. I suspect that Hawaii going 0-3 hurt them as well.
Marquette’s chances to get into the rankings are right in front of them, quite literally. They’ll face Western Kentucky in a 7pm Central time start on Friday, followed by #25 Dayton at 2pm Central on Saturday. Both matches, plus Sunday’s contest against Buffalo, are all at the McGuire Center, as Marquette won’t play a match outside the city of Milwaukee again until October 10th.
You can check out the entire top 25 right here.