It only took one visit to Marquette for junior guard Lee Volker to know she wanted to be a Golden Eagle.

“A lot of it was getting to meet the girls on my visit, seeing the campus, the facilities,” Lee said. “I also enjoyed the family atmosphere on the team.”

After playing in 39 games across two seasons at Duke, Lee left the Blue Devils due to personal reasons.

“Obviously, my time at Duke, I am very grateful for,” Lee said. “I got to take in a lot of knowledge from a lot of knowledgeable people.”

On April 19, Lee announced on social media that she had committed to Marquette.

Head coach Megan Duffy, who has been watching Lee play since she was in high school at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, Virginia, said that she is very excited to see what she can do with the Golden Eagles.

“Great kid, great human being,” Duffy said. “She was a great get for us and obviously, I’m looking forward to continuing to help her develop. She’s going to be a great piece for us this year.” 

Lee not only adds experience to Marquette as she joins the Golden Eagles this season, but a passion for the game that was inspired by those around her growing up.

“It was never like you had to play basketball, you didn’t have to do this, we all just love it,” Lee said. “My dad got to coach us through our careers which was really special for all of us, it’s just become something that we do.”

As Lee continues to adapt to a new situation at Marquette, Louis, her younger sister, is starting a collegiate basketball career of her own at Missouri State. Louis said that Lee has been a great resource for her so far.

“I’m pretty grateful that she went and did it first,” Louis said. “When she came back this past summer, we did a lot of work together and were able to work on specific skill sets that are more important for college than high school.”

Louis and Lee’s father, Clair, also played collegiate basketball at the Division II level at Fairmont State. Louis said that her father’s selflessness has had a huge impact on both her and Lee.

“He tells us all the time that he coaches us for us and for our own sake, just to make us the best basketball players we can be,” Louis said. “It’s not for him or for any personal glory, he’s very selfless and I really appreciate that from him.”

Even though both of the Volker sisters are now on separate college teams, Lee is very proud of her younger sister and said that she is excited to see what her sister is able to do at Missouri State.

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve never gotten to play together but we’re always working out together, always getting shots up and playing one-on-one,” Lee said. “I think we’ve helped each other a lot, it’s really been cool to see.”

After a summer back home helping her sister prepare for Division I hoops, Lee now turns her attention back to her third season of college basketball.

Marquette, which lost three of its top seven minute-loggers from last year’s team, has a handful of playing time to replace this season, and Lee is a prime candidate.

Assistant coach Khadijah Rushdan said that for Lee, the sky’s the limit.

“With Lee, it’s just a matter of her understanding what she is capable of doing,” Rushdan said. “She’s a big guard with great size that has the ability to affect the game in a lot of different ways.”

And that is exactly what she has done so far.

In her debut with the Golden Eagles, Lee tallied six rebounds and three assists on her way to scoring 11 points against UT Martin.

Through four games, she is averaging 7.8 points per game to go along with 4.5 rebounds per game.

At 6-foot-1, Lee is Marquette’s tallest guard. Marquette has really been able to use that to its advantage, so far switching Lee onto both guards and forwards. Lee can be a matchup nightmare for other teams with her combination of size and quickness.

Rushdan said that Marquette fans can expect continuous growth from Lee this season and in the years to come.

“Lee is going to be able to develop into someone who always has that motor,” Rushdan said. “Diving after loose balls, taking charges, she’ll be able to mix it up defensively because of her size. The growth is everlasting for her and ever-evolving.”

This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.