The last thing Olivia Porter did in her collegiate career was assist a 3-pointer.
With five minutes remaining in the first half of Marquette women’s basketball’s Feb. 1 visit to Georgetown, the senior point guard dished the ball to Lee Volker, who drilled the shot. One second later, she was helped off the court and limped to the Golden Eagles’ bench, where she has spent all three games since, and will spend every game this season to come.
Marquette on Wednesday announced Porter was done for the year with a lower leg injury from the game at the Hoyas, and head coach Cara Consuegra confirmed in her postgame presser it was Porter’s knee. As a senior who a team spokesperson confirmed has no more eligibility, she will never take the floor in a Division I basketball game again.
“We’re without our point guard,” Consuegra said when asked about the Golden Eagles’ second half struggles in the disappointing 70-58 home loss to Seton Hall.
The same point guard who followed Consuegra to Marquette from Charlotte two years ago. The Golden Eagles’ imperturbable force, who Consuegra called their “Steady Eddie.”
“I think with Liv, a lot of people don’t give her the credit that she deserves,” Consuegra said. “[She] rights the ship, makes the right play, gets people in the right spot.”
The Golden Eagles (16-9, 10-6) have lost two of their three games since Porter’s injury, the lone win — a tenser-than-the-score-would-suggest 78-61 win — coming at home against the 5-10 in Big East play Providence Friars.
Three days before Wednesday’s loss to Seton Hall, Marquette fell 80-74 at Creighton after squandering a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter and losing in overtime.
Then, the Golden Eagles did not score a field goal for the final 7:17 against the Pirates, missing all nine of their final shot attempts and falling by double-digits.
“I think it’s very obvious that we’re missing her,” Consuegra said. “I’m missing her.”
Porter’s season-ending knock is the program’s third this year, on top of a handful of other minor injuries and illnesses that have wrenched rotations.
As she joins two other Golden Eagles in whiling away the 2025-26 campaign on chairs, Marquette’s already short bench becomes even smaller. The number of reserves cut once again, leaving Consuegra tinkering to find a winning recipe.
“This year has been extremely frustrating with our injuries,” Consuegra said. “And so all we can do is continue to learn and grow and try to get better.”
The loss of Porter makes that task of learning and growing even more difficult.
She started the Golden Eagles’ first 22 games, averaging still the fourth-most number of minutes per game (27). She had Marquette bests in shooting percentage (43.3%), along with more assists and points per game. Not to mention, Porter had 11 more steals in one less appearance.
Porter remains fifth on the team in points per game (5.6) and third in 3-point percentage (39.1%). Her 30 steals are good enough to rank second-best, and her 58 rebounds are top 5.
“[Porter’s injury] is certainly a huge void that we’ve got to try to figure out to fill,” Consuegra said.
Marquette is running out of time to do so.
After being bested by the Pirates for the second time this season, the Golden Eagles — who were picked second in the Big East preseason poll — sit in fourth place with the same number of conference losses as all of last year with two difficult games on the horizon. First comes the crucible that is the undefeated, No. 1 ranked UConn Huskies on Saturday before a trip to Villanova Feb. 22.
And Marquette has to brave those two forces, followed by its final pair of regular season games and then the Big East tournament — completely devoid of its senior point guard.
This story was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.
