Marquette women’s basketball has switched their roster over to the 2026-27 edition! All of the officially announced newcomers are listed now — no Ainoah Rio as we continue to be puzzled by exactly what her commitment from back in April actually means for the now 20 year old from France — and that means we can run down who is going to be wearing what numbers when we get to November!
Let’s start with two players who are a different size than we originally thought, since we’ll have two things to talk
about with both of them.
Kayl Petersen — #34
The first thing to discuss is that the roster is listing Petersen at 6’1”. Virginia Tech had her at 6’0” even, which is a little bit interesting because I found listings for her at 6’1” back in 2022 when she verbally committed to play for Megan Duffy. Maybe gravity or measuring tapes work differently in Blacksburg. Who can say?
Speaking of things that are slightly odd: #34 is up on the wall at the McGuire Center for Abbie Willenborg, who is still #4 all time in scoring for Marquette 26 years after she broke Julie Sievers’ scoring record at the time and became the first MU player with more than 1,800 points in a career. I’ve got no problem with the banners on the wall being honors not retirements…. but the Marquette record book does say that her jersey is retired. With that said, Chelsie Butler wore #34 for Marquette starting in 2011-12, essentially immediately after MU retired Willenborg’s number in January 2011. Clearly this is not a big deal since they handed out right away…. but also no one has worn #34 since Butler wrapped up in 2015. It’s been over a decade of letting it sit unused and unofficially retired! That’s odd!
Se’Crette Carter — #3
When Marquette announced Se’Crette Carter’s signing back in November, the official press release said she was 5’7”. On the roster now, seven months later? She’s listed at 5’8”. That’s less weird than Petersen shifting in size across four years, as Carter has “is an athletic high school aged person” on her side here.
Rose Nkumu was Marquette’s most recent #3, so it had been sitting unused for a couple of years there. That’s less time off than there was between McKayla Yentz in 2017 and Nkumu starting in 2021. We can debate between Yentz and Nikki Taggart as the best #3 in Marquette women’s basketball history. Yentz rallied late in her career to end up at #10 on the all-time three-pointers made chart, getting nearly half of her makes in her junior year to set the program record for that class. Taggart is #9 all time in assists for Marquette, but she has two of the three best single season assist totals and since she was only at MU for three years after a transfer, it’s reasonable to wonder how close she would be to Carolyn Kieger’s record of 694 for a career.
Alrighty then, continuing on in alphabetical order….
Noelle Anthon — #5
Anthon picks up #5 from Charia Smith fresh off her transfer to Bradley, so the number will stay in continued usage. We’ll have to wait to see what happens with Anthon and eligibility relative to her status as a junior college transfer because the Diego Pavia lawsuit theory would mean that she could have four years remaining, but if the 5 years to play 5 seasons rules kick in immediately when that NCAA vote happens later this summer, then Anthon may be limited to just three campaigns.
In any case, she’s probably not going to come anywhere close to being the best #5 in Marquette history, as the baseline there is “Big East Player of the Year and #3 scorer in program history.” Yeah, that’s Natisha Hiedeman, current starting point guard for the Seattle Storm. I’m not going to say that Anthon can’t pull it off, I’m just saying the odds are low, that’s all.
Kinley Asp — #2
This will be just the fifth time that anyone has worn #2 for Marquette, and if Asp can keep the number for three years, she’ll be just the second Golden Eagle to do that. Hannah Grim had it in 2015 for her one year at MU, Bridget Utberg grabbed it for her first year before changing to #7 when the NCAA rules changed, and Jaidynn Mason has had it the last two seasons. The fourth? Carolyn Kieger, who was the first ever #2 in Marquette history back in 2003. Since Kieger is the program’s all-time leader in assists, it seems obvious that she’s going to stay the best #2 for the time being on top of her tenure as head coach, too. Asp is coming in as a freshman with a pretty strong chance to earn minutes out of the gate, so there’s a big runway for her to beat out Mason as #2 wearing #2.
MacKenzie Givens — #12
Givens wore #12 for both of her two seasons at Xavier, so it’s nice to see that she gets to keep her number in Milwaukee. It was sitting available after Kenzie Hare transferred to Iowa State, which short-circuited what could have been a pretty solid run as one of the best #12’s in MU history. Karissa McLaughlin had a neat one year tenure with the number in 2022, and Jessica Pachko led Marquette in rebounding in 2010 while wearing #12 as well. However, none of them are the best #12, because that’s Erika Davenport. She had her Marquette career ended a little bit early by injury, so she got stuck at #15 all time in scoring and #4 in rebounding even though she only needed 127 more glass cleanings to break Abbie Willenborg’s record.
Brooklyn Hall — #1
This is another “keeping it in use” situation, as Hall grabs #1 as Lee Volker’s time at Marquette comes to an end. Volker picked it up from Nia Clark, who received it from Nirel Lougbo, who had it after Danielle King. All in a row going back to 2016. However, none of them, not even King, were able to wrest away the title as the best #1 in Marquette history, because Angel Robinson kicked that door in with her career from 2007-11. She was the first #1 in program history — again, was there a weird rule about this? — and she’s still #9 all time in scoring and #4 in assists. Hard to argue with those credentials, that’s for sure.
Yu Han Lin — #11
We’re going to have a height change in #11 from last year to this year, as we go from the 6’3” Skylar Forbes to the 5’9” Lin. I would presume that means the actual size of the numbers on the jersey would change as well, right?
In any case, Forbes was the first #11 for Marquette since Allazia Blockton made it very clear as to who was going to be the best #11 in program history for a very long time. Blockton broke Krystal Ellis’ career scoring record, became the first 2,000 point scorer in Marquette history, and finished up with 2,204 points. Could have been a few more in there if she didn’t miss time with an injury during her senior season, too. Blockton is also #11 all time in rebounds, #6 in made free throws, and her sophomore and junior years go into the books as two of the nine best scoring seasons in Marquette history.
In other words: No slight to Lin, but she’s got almost no shot of coming anywhere close to being the best #11 that we’ve ever seen. I wonder if knowing stuff like that is freeing to the players or if they don’t think about it at all?
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