Marquette Hosts Morgan State in 2019-20 Lidlifter

MILWAUKEE – A new era of Marquette women's basketball begins on Tuesday as the Golden Eagles open the 45^th season of competition hosting Morgan State for an 11:30 a.m. CT matinee.

Tuesday's game will stream live and for free at GoMarquette.com with Patrick Reed handling play-by-play duties and Chris Reisner as the analyst.

The Golden Eagles have a new look to open the season as head coach Megan Duffy begins her tenure leading Marquette after a successful two-year post at Miami (Ohio).

The talented freshmen class includes Claire Kaifes, Jordan King, Nirel Lougbo, Destiny Strother, Camryn Taylor and Taylor Valladay. Antwainette Walker is the lone transfer, coming to Marquette after spending one year at Arkansas-Little Rock. Walker will sit out this season due to the NCAA transfer policy.

Marquette returns seniors Altia Anderson and Isabelle Spingola, juniors Lauren Van Kleunen and Selena Lott, and sophomore Chloe Marotta.

The Golden Eagles have a busy first week of competition with three games on the schedule. MU will host St. Francis Brooklyn on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. CT before closing the week against Illinois State on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. CT.

FOLLOW THE ACTION

LIVE STATS: https://gomarquette.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary
WATCH: https://gomarquette.com/watch/?Live=95&type=Live

PROMOS

Spend your lunch break at the Al! Enjoy $1 concession specials and $2 hot dogs.
All MU faculty and staff get free admission

OPPONENT

MORGAN STATE: Morgan State finished the 2018-19 season with a 10-21 record and went 8-8 in the MEAC as the Lady Bears had just eight players on their roster. Morgan State fell in the opening round of the MEAC Tournament in a close 50-48 battle.
The 2019-20 Lady Bears will be led by head coach Edward Davis, Jr., who enters his eighth overall season with the program and fourth as the head coach, after spending four seasons as an assistant coach. Davis, Jr. returns just four players from last season's squad.

This is the first meeting between Morgan State and Marquette.

WHAT THE TEAM IS SAYING:
On opening the season…
"I'm really thrilled to get this young team started in a new era. It's been interesting the growth of our team so far every day is so much about getting better and finding our identity in new roles. My expectations are simple: we are going to work extremely hard, we are going to have great attitudes and we are going to build, build, build to find this next great championship team."
-Megan Duffy
Head Coach

On season expectations…
"We are excited to prove people wrong. People don't expect a lot from us and we are using that as fuel."
-Lauren Van Kleunen
Redshirt Junior

STORYLINES:

NEW TEAM, NEW LOOK: New head coach Megan Duffy comes to Marquette after spending the last two seasons at the University of Miami (Ohio). She left Oxford with a record of 44-20 (.687), leading her team to a pair of Women's National Invitation Tournament appearances and back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since the 1980's.
PRESEASON ACCOLADES: Junior Selena Lott and freshmen Jordan King were honored by the BIG EAST as they dished out their preseason awards. Lott was tabbed to the preseason All-BIG EAST squad as she is Marquette's most prominent scorer from last season, averaging 9.0 ppg in BIG EAST play. She has also asserted herself as one of the best defenders in the conference totaling 67 steals and 17 blocks last season. King was named as the preseason BIG EAST freshman of the year. The Rockton, Illinois native scored 2,505 points in her time on Hononegah High School, setting a NIC-10 Conference record.

Keep up with Marquette women's basketball through social media by following on Twitter (@MarquetteWBB) and Instagram (@MarquetteWBB) and `liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteWBB).