But it seems that they’re not done recruiting yet……
Back on November 13th, Marquette volleyball announced the signing of three Class of 2025 recruits. Setter Isabella Haggard, outside hitter Mari King, and middle blocker Keira Schmidt are all expected to enroll at Marquette for spring semester this school year and begin their four years of eligibility in the 2025 season.
We’ll get to the individual things said about each of these women in a minute, but for the purposes of blogging here, I want to skip to the very end of the Marquette press release:
Further additions to Marquette’s signing class of 2025 will be announced at a later date.
Well, that’s interesting, isn’t it? Right there in the press release: “We’re not done recruiting yet.” That’s not surprising of course. Marquette is losing seven seniors off the 2024 roster, and all seven were in the starting lineup on Senior Night, if you consider the two named liberos as starters. The 2025 roster was always going to look drastically different than the 2024 roster, so it’s not surprising that head coach Ryan Theis is still out there looking for ways to improve his volleyball team.
The thing is…. I don’t think that means high school recruits. It could, of course. But there’s no guarantee that any high school prospects choose Marquette between now and whatever future date Theis has in mind. I suspect that this means that there are inbound transfers and Theis already knows who they are….. but MU can’t announce them until the season is over. Remember when Sarah Kushner transferred to Marquette? MU didn’t announce that transfer until March, but Kushner announced it one day after the Marquette season ended. Clearly she had this possibility in front of her for a decent stretch, and clearly she had been in communication with the Marquette staff about it already. Take this year’s Marquette roster, as Ella Foti is graduating from MU at the end of the semester and heading to Pepperdine to play beach volleyball and work on a grad degree. She was in the transfer portal a long time back and committed to the Waves in July. Theis was proactive in helping find Foti a landing spot in that regard, so it’s not like he’s a stranger to the process of actively tracking down prospects in the portal while they are still officially enrolled somewhere else.
Anyway, we’ll have to wait and see what it all means.
Okay, back to the incoming freshmen! First, here’s what Ryan Theis had to say about the three of them as a group:
“We are excited to add Mari, Keira and Bela at the semester to get a jump on their freshman seasons and transition into a new era of Marquette Volleyball,” Theis said. “All three play important positions where we are losing a good deal of production due to graduation this fall. Mari is a point-scoring outside hitter, Bela is a tough-as-nails setter and Keira is a physical blocker.”
The press release notes that Haggard and Schmidt are top 90 prospects in the country according to PrepDig, coming in at #65 and #86 respectively. They’re also both #5 in their home state, while King has to settle for being #18 in Florida while also holding the state’s all-time career kills record. Seems disrespectful to a certain extent, PrepDig.
Here’s the press release and Theis on Haggard:
Haggard is a 5-foot-10 setter from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Kentucky who is also a state champion gymnast and horizontal jumper in track and field.
“Bela is a true competitor at the setter position,” Theis said. “She reminds me of (current MU assistant coach) Abby Gilleland as a 17-year old. Every point matters to Bela and she will fight for them. She has won at highest levels of club playing multiple positions.”
I feel that the Abby Gilleland comment requires explanation. Ryan Theis has been doing this volleyball thing for a minute, and he recruited Gilleland to Ohio starting with the 2012 season before taking the Marquette job for the 2014 season.
Moving on to the press release and Theis on King:
King is a 5-foot-10 outside hitter from Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida and the state’s all-time career kills leader.
“Mari is a great mix of skill and power,” Theis said. “She reminds me of a mix between Natalie Ring and Jenna Reitsma and is a point scorer both in-system and out. We are excited to see her play in some big time matches for us in 2025.”
And Schmidt:
Schmidt, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker is a two-time Minnesota Star Tribune all-state selection at Eagan High School and a former teammate of current MU right-side hitter Sienna Ifill with Northern Lights.
“Keira has a significant blocking presence at the net,” Theis said. “Her size and ability to learn and process the game will be extremely valuable as a middle blocker. Her work ethic and personality are contagious, and she will fit in very well with our culture.”
I have to say, it’s a little interesting that King, the one who’s not a top 90 prospect, is the one that Theis went out of his way to say that she’ll be playing in big spots as a freshman. Then again, if you look at who’s on the roster and returning for 2025, there is more competition at setter and middle blocker than there is at outside hitter.
You can read the entire press release, including a huge bunch of info about each woman’s prep career right here.