Since stepping into the Marquette women’s basketball starting lineup — and Cara Consuegra’s system as a sophomore — Halle Vice has powered herself to new heights in her junior season with her intense motor.
With the calendar not even flipped to February, Vice has tallied seven double-doubles since the start of the season, four of which came during conference play, catapulting her to Big East Player of the Week honors in the first week of January.
She helped celebrate the holidays with four straight double-doubles in the Yuletide season, against Truman State, St. John’s, Xavier and Villanova. She racked up a career-high 32 points in that Villanova game, also ringing in the new year with a career-high 19 rebounds and matching another career high with five assists, against Xavier— even without Skylar Forbes playing alongside her on that day. From Marquette’s first conference game against DePaul on Dec. 4, she’s been averaging 15.6 points and 9.8 rebounds per contest.
Vice said that her biggest strength to her game, and leading up to her big season, was bringing her intense motor to games with rebounding, deflections and defense. Consuegra saw eye to eye with Vice on this aspect of her craft and praised it as her calling card.
“Her work ethic and motor are off the charts; she’s one of the highest motor kids that I’ve ever coached,” Consuegra said.
Vice said that her mentality this season has been affecting the game regardless of how it shows up on the stat sheet.
“I approach every game wanting to impact things in any way I can, with toughness, grit, just going out there and playing freely,” Vice said.
Factor in two Big East Weekly Honor Rolls since the start of the 2025-26 season, marking Vice’s continued ascension with the Golden Eagles since her first season in the blue and gold, where she sat behind the likes of Jordan King, Liza Karlen and Frannie Hottinger — who are playing professional basketball overseas after graduating from Marquette.
Since Consuegra’s arrival at Marquette in April 2024, she said that Vice’s dedication and improved confidence in her abilities have paid dividends in her game.
“She has worked tremendously to create some mental toughness for when she makes mistakes, or when she has breakdowns, to get to the next play faster,” Consuegra said. “I think that comes when you put the work in, and you see the work pay off.”
Vice said that her mental growth and lessons learned from going through college, plus the change in coaching staff have all formed a cornucopia of learning, which helped pave the way for her shining moments.
“Freshman year’s always a little bit hard, as you get older and go through more adverse experiences, you’ve grown in a lot of ways on and off the court, and as a person,” Vice said. “I think all those lessons that I learned over the years have helped me become a better basketball player mentally, and confidence helps.”
Graduate student guard Lee Volker said that Vice’s intensity gives flexibility for the rest of Marquette’s lineup, which was the only team in NCAA Division I to retain its entire 2024-25 roster.
“I think it helps, playing with people who are your friends, and we both (Volker and Vice) want to see each other succeed, and it’s really helpful when she sets great screens, posts really hard, and plays hard all the time,” Volker said. “It opens up stuff for everybody.”
Naismith-watchlist junior forward Skylar Forbes and Vice have been roommates for all of their three years at Marquette, and have been the anchors for the Golden Eagles in the paint. Vice is listed on Marquette’s roster as a guard but has been in a category of her own when it comes to rebounding, racking up 150-plus rebounds, while no one else has crossed the century mark. Consuegra said that Forbes and Vice are Marquette’s ‘unicorns’ due to their ability to play inside and outside of the post.
“They have the ability to play multiple spots, they have the skillset of multiple players, that makes them special, and I think that makes (Vice) a matchup nightmare,” Consuegra said.
With having played a big role in Marquette’s conference slate as the winter rolls on, Vice said that taking the next step is through self-belief and trusting her process.
“Trusting in the work that I’ve put in, over the summer, throughout the season, and just believing in yourself,” Vice said. “That will really take you far.”
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at michael.severson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.