(BIG EAST) NEW YORK – Marquette University women’s volleyball players Yadhira Anchante, Hattie Bray and Aubrey Hamilton were each named to the All-BIG EAST Conference Team, the league announced on Tuesday afternoon.
All three were on the All-BIG EAST Preseason Team to begin the year and are recognized on the postseason team for the third year in a row. Hamilton and Bray are unanimous selections and prior to this season, only five players in program history had earned three all-conference first team honors.
The Golden Eagles finished the regular season with 16 conference wins for the fifth-straight season (not counting the truncated 2020 season in which MU played just six BIG EAST contests).
Marquette finished the conference season leading the league in digs (16.81 per set) and second in hitting percentage (.283), opponent hitting percentage (.162), kills (14.26) and assists (12.92) per set.
Hamilton leads MU in kills for the third time in as many years with 354 for an average of 3.54 per set overall and 3.79 in league play. She reached her 1,000th kill in a MU uniform with a career-high 28 in a five-set home win over DePaul on Oct. 18, and enters postseason play seventh in program history with 1,178 kills at MU. The native of Hartland, Wisconsin has earned AVCA All-Region honors in each of the last two campaigns.
Hamilton can join Hope Werch later this week as the only MU players to earn three all-conference tournament selections in a career.
Bray’s hitting percentage of .431 in conference play leads the league by nearly 20 points and her 2.68 kills-per-set mark ranks in the top 20. For the season, she hits .355 with 2.48 kills and 0.85 blocks per frame and has earned three weekly league honors this fall, including in each of the last two weeks.
Bray, who earned AVCA All-Region honors last year alongside Hamilton, will look to join Allie Barber (2016-19) and Meghan Niemann (2013-16) next fall as the only MU players to earn four all-league first team honors when she returns for her redshirt senior season in 2025.
Anchante is the first MU setter to earn three first team all-conference accolades and was the 2022 BIG EAST Setter of the Year. Her season average of 10.51 assists per set ranks second in the league behind Creighton’s Kendra Wait and Anchante averages a career-high 3.21 digs per set to lead the Golden Eagles.
The native of Lima, Peru is the fourth player in program history with over 3,000 career assists and enters postseason play with 3,244 in her three-year NCAA Division I career. She leads MU this season with 19 double doubles.
This year marks the seventh year in a row that MU has had three players honored on the All-BIG EAST First Team or equivalent.
The Golden Eagles have earned the No. 2 seed in the BIG EAST Championship Presented by JEEP and will face the winner of Wednesday’s first round match-up of third-seeded UConn and sixth-seeded Villanova in Friday’s semifinal at 5 p.m. Central time in Omaha, Nebraska.
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