VB hosts Georgetown and Seton Hall in final home weekend

Match Notes (PDF)

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University women's volleyball team hosts its final home weekend of the season, beginning with a Senior Night contest on Friday against Georgetown at the Al McGuire Center.

The Golden Eagles will honor their seven-player senior class with a pre-match ceremony, slated for 6:45 p.m. Central time on the court. The match against the Hoyas is slated for 7 p.m., while Sunday's home finale against Seton Hall is set for 1 p.m. Both contests air live on FloCollege with Bob Brainerd on the call.

In addition to Senior Night on Friday, MU will host its annual alumnae weekend festivities, honoring the student-athletes from some of the previous 49 editions of MU women's volleyball.

Following this weekend's games, the Golden Eagles conclude the regular season on Nov. 22 and 24 at Xavier and DePaul, respectively, before BIG EAST tournament play Nov. 27-30 in Omaha, Nebraska.

SENIOR NIGHT ON FRIDAY

The Golden Eagles are set to honor one of the most-accomplished senior classes in program history prior to Friday's game against Georgetown.
Middle blocker Carsen Murray and right-side hitter Ella Foti have been with the program for five seasons, while outside hitter Jenna Reitsma and defensive specialists Samanatha Naber and Jadyn Garrison have been at MU four years. Setter Yadhira Anchante and outside hitter Aubrey Hamilton each came in as transfers prior to the 2022 campaign and are in their third seasons at MU.
Seniors by the Numbers:
- 3 – BIG EAST Championships
- 3 – NCAA tournament appearances
- 1 – Trip to the Sweet 16 (2022)
- 4 – AVCA All-Region selections
- 7 – All-BIG EAST selections
- 20 – BIG EAST All-Academic Team selections
- 17,037 – NCAA regular season indoor attendance record and most-attended women's sporting event in state history (Sept. 13, 2023, at Fiserv Forum)
- 29 – Program-record single-season win total (2022)
- 17 – Program-record BIG EAST win total (2022)
- 694 – Class accounts for nearly 700 matches played
- 104 – Wins over the last five seasons
- 29 – Weeks ranked in the AVCA Coaches' Poll over the last five seasons
- 13th – Highest AVCA Postseason Poll ranking in program history (2022)
- 12th – Highest AVCA Preseason Poll ranking in program history (2023)
- 71 – Weeks receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches' Poll over the last five seasons
- 33 – Straight weeks in the top 35 of the NCAA RPI ranking over the last four years
- 10th – Highest ranking in the NCAA's weekly RPI (Oct. 24, 2022)

MARQUETTE (18-7, 12-2 BIG EAST)

MU secured a spot in the six-team BIG EAST tournament field with its 12th league victory on Nov. 6 at Butler. The league championship begins Wednesday, Nov. 27 in Omaha, Nebraska and the top-two regular season finishers receive a bye into the Friday, Nov. 29 semifinals.
Prior to Sunday's loss to No. 5 Creighton, the Golden Eagles were on a 12-match winning streak following their first loss to CU on Oct. 1.
Outside hitter Aubrey Hamilton leads the Golden Eagles with 3.45 kills per set in all matches with 2.28 digs and 0.60 blocks.
Hamilton became the 14th player to reach 1,000 in a MU uniform in the Oct. 18 win over DePaul with a career-high 28 kills.
Ring is now second on the squad with 2.61 kills per set in all matches on a hitting line of 162-43-418 (.285).
MU head coach Ryan Theis posted the 250th win of his Marquette career in the Nov. 3 match against St. John's. Wednesday's win at Butler was his 150th in BIG EAST action and he has 393 wins in his NCAA Division I head coaching career.
Setter Yadhira Anchante has helped MU hit a combined .260 this season and averages 10.14 assists per frame and a team-best 3.27 digs (10th in the BIG EAST in all matches).
Anchante became the fourth player in program history to reach 3,000 career assists in the Nov. 3 match against St. John's and is currently fourth all-time at MU with 3,074 in 85 matches.
Anchante has a team-best 18 double doubles this season and averages a career high in digs per set.
Middle blocker Carsen Murray, MU's all-time leader in career hitting percentage, leads the BIG EAST this season with a mark of .376 in all matches.
Sophomore Molly Berezowitz and senior Samantha Naber split duties as MU's primary libero early in the season, but Naber has seen her playing time increase during conference play. In MU's 14 league matches, Naber is averaging 3.61 digs per set to rank 10th among players in the BIG EAST.
The Golden Eagles have raised their hitting percentage since the start of BIG EAST play and are hitting .265 on the year.
MU is ranked 22nd in the NCAA's fifth RPI ranking of the season, which includes matches through Nov. 10.
Marquette began conference play with the seventh-toughest strength of schedule in the country according to the NCAA Division I Massey Ratings.
Eight of MU's 11 nonconference matches have come against squads that competed in the 2023 NCAA tournament.

GEORGETOWN (10-16, 3-11 BIG EAST)

The Hoyas began the season 7-2, following six-straight victories from Sept. 6-14.
Georgetown's three victories in BIG EAST play have come against Providence (twice) and DePaul.
Last weekend, the Hoyas swept PC on Friday and fell in four sets to UConn on Sunday.
Georgetown is hitting a combined .188 and Vaughan Anoa'i ranks third in the BIG EAST in blocks per set. The Hoyas are second in the league with 2.13 per frame as a team.
The Hoyas rank sixth in the BIG EAST with 12.73 kills per set and are led by 3.45 by Dionna Mitchell.
Head coach AJ Bonetti is in his second season as head coach at Georgetown after five seasons as an assistant coach at Maryland.

SERIES HISTORY WITH GU:

MU holds a 24-4 edge in the all-time series and has won each of the last 21 meetings. Over that time, the Hoyas have won just three of 66 total sets.
The lone matchup prior to MU's entrance to the BIG EAST in 2005 was a four-set win by the Hoyas in Sept. 1996.
The Golden Eagles swept the first matchup this season in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 27, led by 11 kills from Foti and 10 from Hamilton.

SETON HALL (11-14, 5-9 BIG EAST)

The Pirates play at No. 5 Creighton on Friday evening before heading to Milwaukee.
Seton Hall has swept each of its last three matches since beginning BIG EAST play 2-9. Last weekend SHU defeated UConn and Providence at home.
SHU is hitting .191 this season and has five players averaging at least 2.00 kills per set, led by Madison Loiselle's 2.39 kills per frame. Loiselle is hitting a combined .266 on the year, while SHU's No. 2 kill leader Jenna Walsh averages 2.40 per stanza and hits just .159.
Middle blocker Asli Subasili ranks fourth in the league in all matches with both 1.03 blocks and 0.41 service aces per set.
Head coach Shannon Thompson is in her third season at Seton Hall.

SERIES HISTORY WITH SHU:

Marquette leads the all-time series with the Pirates, 25-5, and all 30 meetings have come since MU joined the BIG EAST for the 2005 season.
The Golden Eagles have won each of the last 16 meetings.
MU held on for a five-set win in the matchup earlier this season on Oct. 25 in New Jersey after winning the first and third frames. Hattie Bray hit .414 and had a match-best 15 kills in the wins, while MU had 13 errors from the service line.
In the last meeting at the Al McGuire Center on Nov. 18, 2023, MU hit .349 in a sweep and the Pirates scored just 31 total points.

BIG EAST PLAY REACHES 20 YEARS

The 2024 campaign is MU's 20th in the BIG EAST Conference and 50th overall.
Marquette has won at a 75.8 percent clip (235-75) since joining the league and is 150-31 (.829) in BIG EAST matches under head coach Ryan Theis.
MU is 111-16 (.874) in BIG EAST play over the last seven seasons (2017-23) under Theis, including consecutive regular season league titles in 2021 (16-2), 2022 (17-1) and 2023 (16-2).
The Golden Eagles are picked to finish second in the BIG EAST Conference preseason coaches' poll and four MU student-athletes were named to the league's preseason team, led by Hamilton, a unanimous selection. Anchante and middle blockers Bray and Carsen Murray also received preseason recognition.
Marquette is a three-time reigning BIG EAST regular season champion, has won four league titles overall (2013, 2021, 2022, 2023) and made its 12th NCAA tournament appearance in the last 13 seasons last fall (MU's lone NCAA miss during 2020-21 was due to the tightened tournament field).

MU ON MILESTONE WATCH

Kills (1,000): Hamilton at 1,124 in MU career, Reitsma (856), Murray (748), Bray (702)
Digs (1,000): Anchante (897), Reitsma (876)
Assists (3,000): Anchante (3,074)
Blocks (400): Murray (395), Bray (253)
Aces (100): Reitsma (141), Foti (91)

MU ADDS HAGGARD, KING AND SCHMIDT FOR 2025

Marquette announced the addition of Mari King, Keira Schmidt and Isabela Haggard for the fall of 2025. Haggard (No. 65) and Schmidt (No. 86) are both ranked as national top-100 prospects in the class of 2025 by PrepDig and are the fifth-ranked players in their respective home states. King is ranked 18th in Florida and eighth at her position in the state.
All three plan to arrive on campus in January and will have four years of NCAA eligibility remaining.
King is a 5-foot-10 outside hitter from Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida and the state's all-time career kills leader.
Haggard is a 5-foot-11 setter from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Kentucky who is also a state champion gymnast and horizontal jumper in track and field.
Schmidt, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker, is a two-time Minnesota Star Tribune all-state selection at Eagan High School and a former teammate of current MU right-side hitter Sienna Ifill with Northern Lights.

2024 MARKS MU'S 50TH SEASON

The 2024 campaign marks MU's 50th season of competition and 20th season in the BIG EAST Conference.
The first season of women's volleyball at Marquette was played during the 1975-76 academic year and MU has grown into a perennial NCAA tournament participant and four-time BIG EAST champion.
The Golden Eagles have qualified for each of the last 12 NCAA tournaments with full 64-team fields and have advanced to the NCAA Second Round seven times and own a pair of NCAA Regional Semifinal appearances.

Keep up with the Marquette University women's volleyball program through social media by following on X (@MarquetteVB) and Instagram (@MarquetteVB) and 'liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteVolleyball).