Mid-May is a little bit of an odd time to be making additions to a volleyball roster, but it is right as school years are wrapping up around the country. Maybe that’s the explanation behind UNC Wilmington setter/opposite hitter Lauren Young announcing that she will transfer to Marquette for the 2026 volleyball season.
The caption is simple, but we’ll include it here for posterity:
I am excited to announce I’ll be joining @marquettevb for my last season of eligibility!
Beyond grateful to have the opportunity
to finish my college career in a place I once called home! #WeAreMarquette
Heads up to the Marquette Wire sports staff: That “once called home” part is a free story idea for you guys, have fun!
As she mentioned in her post herself, Young will only be at Marquette for one season. The 5’11” setter/opposite hitter started her collegiate volleyball career at Jacksonville back in 2022, but did not play as a redshirt season. She appeared in 21 total matches across the 2023 and 2024 seasons for the Dolphins, essentially only playing at setter. She had just four assists in 17 sets as a redshirt freshmen, then had 82 in 25 sets in 2024. That is just 3.28 per set, but she was playing behind starter Emily Hodsdon as the Dolphins went 15-14 overall and 10-7 in ASUN action.
Young finished her degree in three seasons at JU, then moved on to UNC Wilmington for the 2025 campaign. In terms of wins and losses, that was a step back as the Seahawks went just 5-21 last year and 4-12 in CAA play. She played 69 sets across 22 matches, playing some at outside hitter and some at setter. That left her with a 1.33 kills per set average and a 2.20 assists/set average. The hitting part is slightly troubling relative to figuring out how much Young can contribute to a Marquette team that’s resetting the deck but still trying to aim at the NCAA tournament. Averaging less than two kills per set for a part-time hitter playing in three-quarters of the team’s sets isn’t that big of a deal, but hitting just .109 is.
If Young is going to be an insurance policy on freshman setter Luanna Markus, that hitting percentage isn’t that big of a deal. Callie Kenny is the only other player on the roster at the moment or expected for the roster this fall that has that S next to her name, and even in her case, Marquette can’t decide if she’s a setter, a right side hitter, or a defensive specialist. Head coach Tom Mendoza probably needed at least one more player with setting experience on the roster, and at the very least, Young fills that void.
And now, the new scholarship chart.
Lauren Young will give Marquette nine new faces for the 2026 season. That’s Young, outside hitter Carson Tyler, and seven of the eight freshmen, as Annika Kowalski was in Milwaukee in 2025 but ended up taking a redshirt season. That is a lot of changeover from last season, some of it expected in the wake of the late coaching change after Ryan Theis left for Florida. If nothing else, the advantage for Tom Mendoza here is that everyone was either recruited by him to play for the Golden Eagles or has actively chosen to stay at Marquette going forward. That’s a bit different than last year, where Mendoza was coaching a roster that he essentially had nothing to do with assembling.
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