(MARQUETTE COMMUNICATIONS) 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.
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