6 matches against teams coming off an NCAA tournament bid a year ago & 8 matches at the McGuire Center for Tom Mendoza’s first non-con slate.
We are officially 112 days away from the start of the Tom Mendoza Era of Marquette volleyball. How do we know this? Because Mendoza and the Golden Eagles announced their 2025 non-conference schedule on Friday afternoon.
Let me tell you what: It’s on par with the schedule that we’ve seen for the last decade or so for Marquette.
Six of Marquette’s opponents qualified for the NCAA tournament last season, led by Wisconsin, which reached the Elite Eight. All but one team finished .500 or better last season with eight foes winning at least 20 games. We’ll be nice to San Diego and point out that nine of the 12 opponents won at least 19 games.
The upside of the level of difficulty? All but 3 matches will be in Milwaukee and eight of the nine home games will be at the McGuire Center. The lone exception there is the yearly contest against Wisconsin, which returns to Fiserv Forum this fall.
Let’s go to a quote from new head coach Tom Mendoza on his first ever non-conference schedule at Marquette:
“Elite student-athletes choose Marquette because they get the experience and education Marquette provides while competing at the top level nationally,” Mendoza said. “Our non-conference schedule not only gives our team the opportunity to compete to win at the highest level but also brings great volleyball to Milwaukee at both the Al and Fiserv.”
Let’s go in order real quick like!
Marquette will start off the 2025 season with their only road trip of non-conference action, and it’ll be a real team bonding trip as they travel all the way out to Hawaii for the 2025 Rainbow Wahine Classic. MU will open up the campaign and the Classic against host Hawaii. That’s an NCAA tournament test out of the gate, but Marquette is 2-0 all time against Hawaii. That match is on Friday, August 29, and they will stay in Honolulu to take on San Diego and Utah State on the next two days. Marquette is 0-1 all time against USD after facing them in an event hosted by Hawaii in 2017, and this will be the first ever meeting against USU.
From there on out, it’s nothing but home dates. The first six come as Friday/Saturday/Sunday events at the McGuire Center. First up starting on September 5th is Western Kentucky, and they will be followed by Dayton and Buffalo the next two days. This is the 3rd straight year that Marquette has faced both WKU and Dayton, as the trio have rotated on who is hosting the event. Both the Hilltoppers and the Flyers went to the NCAA tournament last season, with Dayton getting to the Sweet 16 after defeating Tom Mendoza’s South Carolina team in the first round. Much like the previous weekend, Marquette will round things out on Sunday with a match against a Bulls team that they have never played before.
The next weekend is a little bit lighter fare for the Golden Eagles. The Friday/Saturday/Sunday schedule is Ball State, James Madison, and Milwaukee. JMU is the only team on the slate that was under .500 last season. Marquette last faced Ball State in 2022 in an NCAA tournament match at the McGuire Center, and the Golden Eagles have won 14 straight contests against Milwaukee after a victory at the Al last season.
The final three non-con battles of the season will be doozies, and all right in a row, just about. First it’s Wisconsin at Fiserv Forum on Wednesday, September 17th, then Florida Gators and new head coach Ryan Theis returning to the McGuire Center on Friday, and then Minnesota on Sunday. All three teams won at least one NCAA tournament match last season with UW going to the Elite 8 and the Gators getting to the Sweet 16.
Is it a tough schedule, considering that Marquette returns just one starter from last year in Hattie Bray and only one every night rotation player in Natalie Ring behind her? Yeah, probably. It’s not as insanely tough as the schedule the last two years when Ryan Theis was trying to challenge his loaded roster, but it’s enough to give MU chances to 1) get wins and 2) build their RPI up. Remember: The Big East is as wide open as it has been in years, given that Creighton has changed their head coach just like Marquette has and the Bluejays return just two of the women who started at least 17 matches for them last season.
By the way, since it’s in the press release: Season tickets are $75 and go on sale starting on Monday, May 12th. That does not include a ticket to the Wisconsin match at Fiserv Forum, but it does get you early access to buy those tickets, which go on sale to the general public on Thursday, June 26th.
Here’s the full schedule and most of the start times.
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