Not on purpose, I suspect, but it’s still welcome.
In case you missed it, Marquette Golden Eagles volleyball had a coaching change this offseason. Ryan Theis took the head coaching job at Florida, and so Marquette hired Tom Mendoza away from South Carolina, fresh off a season where he beat those same Gators on the way to constructing an NCAA Tournament caliber resume.
Of course, this change does lead to a certain amount of questions as to whether or not the recruiting class that Theis assembled before his departure would remain signed and schedule to play for Marquette. Three of the expected incoming freshmen — Isabela Haggard, Mari King, and Keira Schmidt — were already enrolled at Marquette for the spring semester when Theis left for Gainesville, while three more were expected to arrive in Milwaukee in time for preseason training in August.
I felt pretty confident that the three enrolled freshmen were going to stick around as all three played in the spring match against Wisconsin, a couple of months after Theis left. It stands to reason that if they were planning on moving on, they wouldn’t be trying to help Mendoza figure out how they fit into his plans for the 2025 season.
And so, when Marquette posted this “congrats on your graduations!” item on Instagram, it wasn’t a surprise to see Haggard, King, and Schmidt in there.
I’m not going to call it a surprise that we also see Avery Helms, Annika Kowalski, and Emma Parks in the collection of pictures. But we can call it confirmation that all three of the summer enrollees are still on board with suiting up in blue and gold. I didn’t have any evidence at this point to suggest differently, but it wouldn’t have been the weirdest thing in the world if they had elected to move on without Theis coaching the team any more.
That wraps up almost all the questions about the roster. Elena Radeff is still an outstanding question, as she was announced as an incoming transfer while Theis was still the head coach. Again, no evidence to suggest that she is electing to go elsewhere, but also no positive confirmation that she’s still headed to Milwaukee in about 8 weeks.
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