VB opens NCAA play Thursday against FGCU in Utah

NCAA Bracket (PDF) | Interactive Bracket | Marquette's NCAA Match Notes (PDF)

-Fans are invited to join the Marquette community on Tuesday at 9:15 a.m. CT for a team send-off at the Al McGuire Center (770 N. 12th Street)-

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University women's volleyball team makes its 13th appearance in the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship on Thursday, Dec. 5 against Florida Gulf Coast University in first round action in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The fifth-seeded Golden Eagles and FGCU Eagles will meet at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on the campus of the University of Utah at 5:30 p.m. Central time.

Marquette (23-8) finished second in the BIG EAST Conference and is led by 11th-year head coach Ryan Theis and All-BIG EAST selections Aubrey Hamilton, Hattie Bray and Yadhira Anchante. The Golden Eagles have participated in every full-field NCAA tournament since 2011 and have advanced to the NCAA Second Round on seven occasions and competed in a pair of regional semifinals in 2018 and 2022.

Fourth-seeded No. 17 Utah will take on College of Charleston at 8:30 p.m. CT in the other match at the Huntsman Center, where Friday's second round match is slated for 8 p.m. CT. All three matches air live on ESPN+ and live statistics are available through the NCAA's interactive bracket. Ticket information for NCAA matches at the Huntsman Center can be found here.

NCAA First/Second Rounds – Salt Lake City, Utah
Matches on ESPN+ (all times Central)
Thursday, Dec. 5
5:30 p.m. – [5] Marquette vs. Florida Gulf Coast
8:30 p.m. – [4] No. 17 Utah vs. College of Charleston

Friday, Dec. 6
8 p.m. – NCAA Second Round

MARQUETTE (23-8, 16-2 BIG EAST)

MU middle blocker Hattie Bray and outside hitter Aubrey Hamilton were unanimous selections to the All-BIG EAST Team, while setter Yadhira Anchante was also included on the squad. The postseason honors are the third for each and MU had at least three players honored for the seventh year in a row.
Hamilton and Anchante were also named all-tournament at the BIG EAST Championship for their play in matches against Villanova and No. 5 Creighton. Hamilton landed a tournament-best 6.17 kills per set and hit a combined .368 with 14 total digs and a pair of blocks. Anchante posted 70 assists on the weekend (11.67 per set) with 2.83 digs per set and four blocks.
Hamilton joins Hope Werch (2018-20) as the only two players in Marquette history to earn three all-tournament nods in the BIG EAST Championship. ln five tournament matches during her three seasons at MU, Hamilton has posted 93 total kills for an average of 4.89 per set.
Anchante has helped MU hit a combined .266 this season (25th nationally) and averages 10.59 assists per frame (22th nationally) and a team- and career-best 3.19 digs.
MU's 14.13 kills per set average ranks 15th among all NCAA Division I programs.
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 3,315 in 91 matches.
In BIG EAST play this year, MU middle hitter Bray led the conference with a hitting mark of .431 (161-27-311), over 20 points ahead of Creighton's Ava Martin in second place.
Hamilton leads the Golden Eagles with 3.69 kills per set in all matches with 2.35 digs and 0.85 blocks.
Hamilton became the 14th player to reach 1,000 kills in a MU uniform in the Oct. 18 win over DePaul with a career-high 28 kills.
Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Natalie Ring is now second on the squad with 2.51 kills per set in all matches on a hitting line of 203-52-528 (.286).
Middle blocker Carsen Murray, MU's all-time leader in career hitting percentage, led the BIG EAST this season with a mark of .371 in all matches.
Murray became just the fifth player in MU history to reach 400 career blocks on Sunday, Nov. 24 at DePaul. She currently has 407 in 131 career matches.

MARQUETTE MISC.

MU head coach Ryan Theis posted the 250th win of his Marquette career in the Nov. 3 match against St. John's. The Nov. 6 win at Butler was his 150th in BIG EAST action and he has 398 wins in his NCAA Division I head coaching career. Theis can secure his 400th career head coaching victory this year if the Golden Eagles advance to the Sweet 16.
If MU reaches the Sweet 16 with a pair of victories this week, it will push MU's four-year win total to 101, tying it with 2011-14 and 2016-19 for the best four-year stretch in program history.
Ella Foti and Carsen Murray, each of whom were with the program since the spring of 2021, have witnessed 109 victories on the MU sideline (10, 26, 29, 21, 23 wins).
MU is ranked 17th in the NCAA's last RPI ranking of the season, which includes matches through Nov. 30. The four NCAA No. 5 seeds are all within the 15-19 range of RPI.
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 non-conference matches came against squads that competed in the 2023 NCAA tournament and seven of those squads are also in this year's field.
The only time the Golden Eagles previously played in the Beehive State was during the opening weekend of the 2019 campaign. Playing in the BYU Nike Invitational in Provo, MU went 3-0 with wins against Utah Valley, Boise State and then-No. 9 BYU.

MARQUETTE NCAA HISTORY:

The MU women's volleyball program joined NCAA Division I for the 1986 campaign and made its first appearance in the NCAA tournament in 2011.
Since that time, the Golden Eagles have made 13 of the last 14 tournaments, with their lone absence coming in the spring of 2021 due to a reduced field of teams.
In total, MU is 9-12 all-time in NCAA tournament play with seven trips to the second round and a pair of trips to the regional semifinals in 2018 and 2022.
Marquette is 0-7 against seeded host teams (Overall Nos. 1-through-16 (regional 1-4 seeds)).
The 2022 campaign was the first that the NCAA started seeding teams regionally and MU has earned seeds of four (2022), five (2024) and six (2023) over the last three seasons.
This year marks the first time that MU has been sent outside the Midwest for NCAA First and Second Round matches.

THEIS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT:

Fourteen of the 17 teams that Ryan Theis has led as head coach have earned NCAA tournament berths and seven have won at least one postseason match.
Since taking the reins at Marquette for the 2014 campaign, he's led all 10 teams to play full seasons to NCAA competition and did so at Ohio in four of his six years.

FLORIDA GULF COAST (26-7, 13-3 ASUN)

The Eagles won Atlantic Sun Conference regular season and tournament championships. Their tournament title is their fourth in as many seasons.
FGCU defeated Queens University, EKU and Lipscomb in Fort Myers on Nov. 21-23 to win the ASUN tournament.
Senior outside hitter Skylar English was named ASUN Tournament MVP after recording a career-best six service aces and 11 kills in the title match sweep of second-seeded Lipscomb.
Fellow outside Shelby Kent led FGCU with 15 kills in the title match and averages an ASUN-best 4.38 this season. She ranks 27th in NCAA Division I and is 18th in total points (564.0) and 26th in points per set (4.95).
English is second on the team with 3.32 kills per frame and is third nationally in service aces per set (0.64) and fourth in total aces (73).
As a team, the Eagles rank fourth in the country from the service line in aces per set (2.14) and are 30th nationally in hitting percentage (.263).
FGCU runs a 6-2 offense and utilizes setters Shanelle Puetz (6.34 assists per set), a sophomore, and freshman Raegan Richardson (4.39). Richardson and Puetz rank second and third on the squad with 47 and 46 service aces, respectively.
The Eagles are led by 11th-year head coach Matt Botsford.

SERIES HISTORY WITH FGCU:

Marquette met FGCU just once previously, a MU sweep at Alico Arena in Fort Myers on Sept. 13, 2013, as part of the FGCU Volleyball Classic. The Golden Eagles picked up a five-set win in the event over Central Arkansas and lost to then-No. 3 Penn State on Sept. 13 prior to facing FGCU.
AVCA All-American Meghan Niemann led the Golden Eagles with 13 kills and three blocks in the previous meeting with FGCU as MU hit a combined .297 for the 26-24, 25-17, 25-16 sweep.
MU is 10-3 all-time against current members of the ASUN.

UTAH (24-5, 14-4 BIG 12)

The Utes tied with Baylor for third in the Big 12 regular season standings at 14-4 and ended the regular season on a seven-match winning streak. Their 24 victories are the most for a Utah squad since 2005.
Utah played just one ranked opponent prior to conference play, a sweep at the hands of Purdue on Friday, Sept. 6 at the Huntsman Center.
The Utes earned consecutive ranked wins over then-No. 17 TCU and then-No. 18 Baylor on Oct. 10 and 12, respectively, and swept BYU at home on Nov. 8. Baylor joins Utah in the NCAA bracket as a No. 4 seed, while both Baylor and BYU are No. 5 seeds.
Utah is 29th nationally with a team hitting percentage of .265, just behind Marquette's mark of .266. The Utes are also 17th nationally with 14.09 kills per set.
Kamryn Gibadlo's 3.43 kills per set leads the Utes, while Lauren Jardine (2.80) and Emrie Satuala (2.29) each average over 2.00 kills per frame.
Satuala also leads Utah with 1.09 blocks per set.
Head coach Beth Launiere is in her 35th season and has led the Utes to at least 20 wins in 20 separate campaigns.
Launiere's 2015 team was swept by an Ohio squad led by then-senior setter and current MU assistant coach Abby Gilleland on Sept. 12, 2025, in Louisville's Active Ankle Challenge. Gilleland had 36 assists, seven digs, a block and ace and two kills as the Bobcats hit .254 and held the Utes to a mark of .099.

SERIES HISTORY WITH UTAH:

MU has never played Utah.
Marquette is 25-57 (.305) all-time against current members of the Big 12. MU was previously conference mates with West Virginia (BIG EAST), Cincinnati (BIG EAST), Houston (Conference USA) and TCU (C-USA).

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON (25-8, 15-3 CAA)

The Cougars shared the Coastal Athletic Association regular season title with Delaware at 15-3 but defeated the Blue Hens in the CAA title match to earn the league's automatic NCAA berth.
Charleston has won eight matches in a row since three straight losses to North Carolina A&T (twice) and Coastal Carolina on Oct. 25-29). Besides the two losses to N.C. A&T, its other CAA loss was at Stony Brook on Oct. 5 in five sets.
Senior Tynley Smeltzer earned CAA Libero of the Year honors after averaging 4.41 digs per set, while graduate students Emily Banitt and Caitlyn Callahan each earned First Team All-CAA accolades.
Callahan led the CAA with a hitting percentage of .389 and blocks-per-set average of 1.22 per frame. She joins Banitt as the only two Cougars to average over 2.00 kills per set with 2.42 this season.
Banitt leads Charleston with 3.31 kills per set and ranks 17th nationally with 1,322 total attacks.
Head coach Jason Kepner is in his 18th season at Charleston and is a three-time conference coach of the year. He's led the Cougars to six NCAA tournament appearances.

SERIES HISTORY WITH COC:

MU and Charleston have never met.

SPECIAL GROUP OF SENIORS

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
- 4 – NCAA tournament appearances
- 1 – Trip to the Sweet 16 (2022)
- 4 – AVCA All-Region selections
- 10 – 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)
- 736 – Class accounts for over 700 matches played
- 109 – Wins over the last five seasons
- 99 – Wins over the last four 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)
- 74 – Weeks receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches' Poll over the last five seasons
- 36 – 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)

MU ON MILESTONE WATCH

Kills (1,000): Hamilton at 1,215 in MU career, Reitsma (862), Murray (787), Bray (749)
Digs (1,000): Anchante (950), Reitsma (934)
Assists (3,000): Anchante (3,315)
Blocks (400): Murray (407), Bray (266)
Aces (100): Reitsma (149), Foti (93), Anchante (80), Hamilton (78 at MU; 91 overall)

2024 IS 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 13 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.

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