UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Marquette women’s basketball came into the 2025-26 season slated to finish second in the Big East — behind only UConn — after returning all of its players.
But from the jump, it was clear that this season would not be smooth sailing.
Even before the season-opening tip-off, the Golden Eagles suffered two season-ending injuries, with Aryelle Stevens going down in June and JJ Barnes suffering a lower body injury in the team’s Blue and Gold scrimmage on Oct. 3, 2025.
Though Marquette won their first two games, including a comeback in OT against in-state rival Wisconsin, their first blow was getting ran out of Williams Arena by the now-ranked No. 19 Golden Gophers on Nov. 11, where MU could only muster 47 points to surrendering 90. In that game, they shot 32.7% from the field and gave up 19 turnovers.
With that defeat behind them, Marquette soared past the same pesky Bowling Green State team they had lost to in 2024-25, and trounced crosstown rival UW-Milwaukee heading into their Coconut Hoops trip. After that Bowling Green State game on Nov. 14, Marquette head coach Cara Consuegra described the Minnesota loss as “uncharacteristic” of her team.
“I think (Minnesota) was a very uncharacteristic loss for us. That’s certainly what we talked about and learned from, and then had to move on very quickly,” Consuegra said. “I think that was something our team didn’t do well last year; we had bad losses that hung over us, where (today) I thought they did a really good job of getting to the next moment.”
Despite losing both games in Florida in late Novemeber, Marquette held its own against what was considered a top-10 team at the time in Iowa State, and came up short against Gonzaga. But, the Golden Eagles responded thunderously by routing DePaul and Butler to start Big East play.
Bookending its trip to Storrs in December, Marquette took care of business at home against buy game opponents Le Moyne and Truman State by blowing both out by 40-plus points.
While a home loss to St. John’s was concerning to end 2025, finding a way to win without Skylar Forbes against Xavier in Cincinnati due to illness would help a bit, spearheaded by her roommate Halle Vice’s 20-point and 19-rebound performance against the Musketeers.
The winter break was truly Marquette’s time to shine, as they also notched convincing Big East wins against Villanova and Creighton. Versus the Wildcats, Vice’s career-high 32 points and one of her many double-doubles gave MU the upset win.
Against the Bluejays at the Al McGuire Center just four days later, after Olivia Porter delivered a 23-point outing despite multiple scoring droughts, a recurring theme for MU’s offense as they would come up short against these Bluejays in both of the two rematches, including in the Big East tournament.
When campus livened up for second semester, the turbulence kicked up a notch for the Golden Eagles.
Marquette surrendered a quarter-length scoring drought in a road loss to Seton Hall on Jan. 14. Georgetown came to the Al McGuire Center a few days later and started the game off on a 19-0 tear, in which the Golden Eagles tried and failed to find a successful combination to lift themselves out of the funk.
“I was displeased with the effort from our starters, I used my timeout to let them know I was displeased, and if I didn’t feel their effort would change, I would change the lineup, so that’s what I did,” Consuegra said after the loss.
With the calendar flipped to February, Marquette would avenge the aforementioned loss to the Hoyas, besting them 67-59 in D.C., but it came with a huge cost as Olivia Porter would be out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
But in between, while they would win the rematches with Butler and DePaul, the Golden Eagles held on for dear life against the Blue Demons on Jan. 28. The Golden Eagles surrendered a 22-point lead and snuck by the Bulldogs by only four points at Hinkle, albeit without Forbes.
That battle with the Blue Demons showcased the cracks in the blue & gold’s armor, even before Porter’s injury. But as the adversity started to pile up, Consuegra elaborated on the process.
“I don’t think we responded very well from a basketball X’s and O’s standpoint, but I thought we responded very well by staying in the moment and still being able to win the game,” Consuegra said after the game. “Sometimes that’s what you have to do, it wasn’t a good day for us breaking the press, we made a lot of mistakes. We faced those challenges and our kids stayed confident in the huddles.”
But after Porter’s injury, Marquette would lose four straight, capped off by a trip to Villanova in which the Wildcats would handle the Golden Eagles in the rematch, even though Marquette forced No. 1 UConn into one of their toughest wins of the season on Feb. 14.
Marquette would send its seniors and graduate students out on a strong note at home, finding those ‘extra degree plays’ late in the game to pull away, as Consuegra honored Porter by wearing her jersey on senior night as Porter was unable to suit up herself.
Junior forward Skylar Forbes said that she is proud of the way her teammates carried themselves throughout the toughness of the season, especially with seven players leaving due to graduation in Lee Volker, Jaidynn Mason, Olivia Porter, Kennedi Perkins, Bridget Utberg, Abbey Cracknell and Ayuen Akot.
“For people to step up, like Bridget (Utberg) or Charia (Smith), or Jordan (Meulemans) and to be able to impact our team the way we needed them to and be able to still make a statement when we’re down a few people — it’s been an amazing ride,” Forbes said after the team’s loss to Creighton in the Big East quarterfinals.
But, Marquette fell short of the preseason hoopla, finishing tied for third in the conference and losing again in the Big East quarterfinals, a 57-44 defeat to Creighton.
Last year was filled with growth and chemistry building for the Golden Eagles, but this year has been a test in how they weathered more adversity and setbacks throughout the season. Consuegra said that the future next steps are in flux, with the WBIT looming on the horizon.
“We can’t control what happens next. We’ve done what we’ve done, and I think our NET is in a position that we should be, in our opinion, a WBIT team. But we can’t control that,” Consuegra said.
“At the end of the day, we have to continue to prepare and see what happens.”
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.
