The Big East announced the postseason awards for the 2025-26 women’s basketball season on Thursday, March 5th, in advance of the conference tournament beginning on Friday. Three Marquette players are amongst the women honored by the league. Skylar Forbes and Halle Vice are both unanimous picks for the 10 woman All-Big East First Team, while Lee Volker earned a spot on the six woman All-Big East Second Team. In addition to those all-league awards, Forbes is also a part of the five woman All-Defensive
Team.
Let’s get this out of the way before we praise these women: It is completely insane that there is a 10 woman All-Big East First Team. Never has that point been made more clear by nine of the 10 women earning a unanimous selection to the squad. By putting the limit out to 10 places, the coaches were allowed to largely end up agreeing on who the best players in the league were, and thus nearly everyone gets to be a “unanimous” pick. If the league had forced the coaches to pick five women and limit the First Team to that number, there would be a clear definition on exactly who the unanimous selections in every single coach’s mind should be. Maybe only two or three women would get every coach to agree on them, because everyone has different criteria. Instead: NINE.
Absurd, and honestly, slightly disrespectful to the women by making it look like we’re out here trying to not hurt people’s feelings by saying they’re “only” a Second Team honoree. Stop it.
Since the Big East press release is mostly focused on the individual awards, let’s go to the Marquette press release for writeups on the three honored Golden Eagles.
Forbes ranked fourth in the BIG EAST in scoring at 15.5 points per game and 17th in rebounding at 4.9 per outing this season. The junior led the league in blocks for the second straight year at 1.81 per game, a feat that earned her a spot on the BIG EAST’s All-Defensive Team.
Vice, a first-time All-BIG EAST selection, led the conference in double-doubles with 10. The junior ranked No. 7 in the league in scoring (13.8 ppg) and No. 2 in rebounding (8.8 rpg). Vice was one of the conference’s most efficient players this season, ranking No. 2 in field goal percentage at 55.4%.
Volker was Marquette’s most versatile player this year, ranking in the Top 3 for the Golden Eagles in six different categories. One of the top 3-point shooters in the country, the graduate student ranked No. 2 in the BIG EAST in 3-point percentage at 43.3%. Volker also ranked 12th in the scoring (12.2 ppg) and 14th in rebounding (5.2 rpg).
This is the first time in program history that Marquette has had more than two women on the All-Big East First and Second Teams. Of course, as recently as 2020, there were only five women on the First Team, so it was a little bit harder to get three women in the top 10 players in the league. Marquette’s three all-conference honorees is second only to UConn, who put three players on the First Team and one on the Second Team.
As for the individual awards, the top three went exactly where I thought that they would. UConn swept all three trophies, with Sarah Strong taking Player of the Year, Blanca Quinonez taking Freshman of the Year, and Geno Auriemma taking Coach of the Year. Strong was also named Defensive Player of the Year, and Quinonez snagged Sixth Woman of the Year as well. Most Improved Player rounds out the notable individual awards, and that one went to Villanova’s Brynn McCurry.
Marquette starts off their run in the Big East tournament on Saturday when the #4 seeded Golden Eagles face #5 Creighton in the quarterfinals. If they win that game, they advance to the semifinals, mostly likely to face top seeded and undefeated UConn. Tipoff for Saturday’s game is scheduled for 1:30pm Central time on Peacock, but that’s a little bit dependent on when UConn’s quarterfinal contest ends at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut.
You can check out the Big East press release here, and you can check out the Marquette press release here.
