Well, it’s time to open the mystery box that is the 2025 Marquette volleyball season.
We don’t know what this team looks like on the floor because their lone exhibition match against another team was canceled. That contest against Northwestern was going to be useful because Marquette added five players over the summer, so even last spring’s exhibition competitions aren’t that helpful in telling us what to expect from the Golden Eagles in the fall.
Oh, right, that’s not the biggest part of the mystery
box. There’s the fact that Marquette lost four of the six women who averaged at least a kill per set last season, including team leader Aubrey Hamilton, who was the only one averaging north of 2.70 and the only attacker with more than 670 swings last year. She landed at 3.69 and 1,220 respectively, so yeah, that’s a whole thing. Setter Yadhira Anchante and her 10.57 assists per set? Also gone to the end of her eligibility, just like the four attackers that MU lost.
Oh, wait, that’s still not the biggest part of the mystery box. Marquette has a new head coach in Tom Mendoza. He comes to MU after a pretty successful tenure at South Carolina, and he replaces Ryan Theis who clearly established himself as the best coach in program history in his 11 seasons on the sidelines. He’s the one that coached all but three of Marquette’s NCAA tournament teams in program history, but now he’s in Gainesville, coaching Florida.
New coach, lots of new players, no idea how they all fit together…. yeah, there’s a lot going on here. But Marquette is still earning a notable chunk of AVCA preseason top 25 votes, and with three matches in three days against three teams picked to win their respective conferences, two of which are also earning top 25 votes……. well, we’ll have a much better idea of what Marquette’s season might look like by the time the sun comes up on Monday morning.
Oh, right: Marquette’s in Hawaii to open the season, so you’re probably going to want to get stocked up on caffeine if you want to catch the Golden Eagles in action. That is, of course, if there actually is video streams of Saturday and Sunday’s matches…..
Match #1: vs RV Hawaii Rainbow Wahine (0-0)
Date: Friday, August 29, 2025
Time: 11:59pm Central
Location: Stan Sheriff Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast? Maybe?
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle, maybe, if I get a nap in
Marquette is 2-0 all time against Hawaii. They beat #20 Hawaii in the 2017 opener, and then beat the Wahine again in August 2021, with both matches coming as part of the opening weekend Rainbow Wahine Classic.
Hawaii is the favorite to win the Big West in what will be the Rainbow Wahine’s final season in the conference before they join the Mountain West next year. It was a narrow vote, as they tied with Cal Poly with five first place votes each — UC Santa Barbara picked up the 11th and final vote — but Hawaii snagged a two point edge over the Mustangs, 94-92, to end up as the league favorite.
Even with that being the case, there are no returning Hawaii players on the preseason all-Big West team. Their only representative is Bri Gunderson, a middle block arriving on the Islands after spending two years at Eastern Washington and two at BYU before that. She averaged 2.83 kills and 1.53 blocks per set last season while hitting .311, so yeah, she’s pretty dang good.
Outside hitter Tali Hakas is Hawaii’s top returning point getter after averaging 2.55 per set last season, while outside hitter Stella Adeyemi is the leading returning attacker. She beats out Hakas for that title by a narrow margin, 2.08 to 2.07 kills per set. Hakas started 31 times last season compared to just five for Adeyemi, but they ended up just five sets apart as far as playing time goes.
Match #2: vs RV San Diego Toreros (0-0)
Date: Saturday, August 30, 2025
Time: 9:45pm Central
Location: Stan Sheriff Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
Streaming: Doesn’t seem like it
Live Stats: Questionable at best
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle, only if there’s a video feed somehow
Marquette is 0-1 all time against San Diego. The only previous meeting between the two was back in 2017 when — hey, look at this — MU faced #22 San Diego as part of the Rainbow Wahine Classic.
San Diego was picked to win the West Coast Conference this season, snagging 10 of the possible 12 first place votes. Can’t argue with that, given that five Toreros are on the preseason all-WCC team.
Three of those five are San Diego’s top three attackers by kills per set from last season. Isabel Clark led the team at 3.21/set, but she did only hit .201. This was still good enough to get her a WCC Freshman of the Year trophy in 2024. Nemo Beach was a little bit better in the accuracy department at .223 while coming in at 2.90 kills/set. Kennedy Osunsanmi was #3 at 2.56/set and a .241 hitting percentage and presumably was not that far behind Clark when it came time to pick the best freshman in the league last year.
The other two preseason honorees are Kylie Munday, the reigning WCC Setter of the Year, and Kali Engeman, who is a grad transfer middle blocker from Minnesota. Munday led the league with 9.50 assists per set last year and USD led the conference in team hitting percentage, too. Engeman appeared in five matches in three seasons at Georgia Tech before averaging a kill and a block per set in 17 appearances for Minnesota last season. All due respect to her, but I don’t think it says a lot about the depth of middles in the WCC if she’s one of the six best in the conference heading into the season.
Match #3: vs Utah State Aggies (0-0)
Date: Sunday, August 31, 2025
Time: 7:45pm Central
Location: Stan Sheriff Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
Streaming: Doesn’t seem like it
Live Stats: Questionable at best
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteVB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle, only if there’s a video feed somehow
This is the first ever meeting between Marquette and Utah State.
By default, Utah State is the third of the three teams that Marquette is going to face in this tournament. That has nothing to do with them other than Hawaii and San Diego are earning preseason AVCA votes and the Aggies are not. HOWEVER, we can’t ignore the fact that USU is the favorite to win the Mountain West this season. It was a bit of a split vote with three teams getting at least two first place nods, but Utah State grabbed up seven first place votes and finished with 114 points. That’s a decent chunk of real estate between them and second place Colorado State at 106 points and three first place votes, as well as third place San Diego State at 96 points and the remaining two first place votes. This is the fourth straight season that USU has been picked either first or second in the Mountain West, so at the very least, they’re a regular contender in a Division 1 conference.
Senior middle blocker Tierney Barlow and sophomore setter Kaylie Kofe earned spots on the preseason all-Mountain West team. Barlow was the only Aggie to start all 29 matches last season, and she wrapped up the year as the team’s leader in hitting percentage at .383. She averaged 1.85 kills and 0.85 blocks per set. Barlow has been a regular all-MW performer, both last year at Utah State and at Wyoming in her first two seasons of college competition, which includes a Freshman of the Year honor in 2022. It may have taken Kofe a minute to get her feet under her in college last year, as she averaged 8.33 assists per set overall, but 10.10 in Mountain West action. She only started 25 matches last year, but ended up playing in 115 of USU’s 121 sets.
Utah State is negotiating the loss of their top attacker from last season. Adna Mehmedovic averaged 2.80 kills and hit .279 as a senior last year. Andrea Simovski returns after ending up with the most total attacks last year and averaging 2.37 kills with a .159 hitting percentage, and I’d imagine that the Aggies would like to get a full season of activity from Mara Stiglic. She only appeared in 56 sets across 15 matches last year, but she averaged 2.79 kills per set when she was in the lineup.
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