Ethan Pheister and Stef Jankiewicz will be part of Mendoza’s first staff as MU’s volleyball head coach.
New Marquette volleyball head coach Tom Mendoza was pretty quick in bringing in his first assistant coach for his inaugural season in charge of the Golden Eagles, but I’ll be honest with y’all: Early March is kind of a busy time on This Here Internet Website.
And so, knowing that Mendoza was eventually going to have to hire another assistant anyway, I put off an update until that second one came in. That happened last week, so here we go!
Let’s go back to March 5th, when Marquette and Mendoza announced the hiring of Ethan Pheister as associate head coach.
This will be a relatively easy transition for both Mendoza and Pheister, as Pheister was Mendoza’s assistant coach at South Carolina for the past seven season, and he was elevated to associate head coach of the Gamecocks for the 2024 season. Heck, it might even be easier than that for Pheister, as this is something of a homecoming for the Shorewood High School graduate.
Here’s Mendoza on his new/old associate head coach:
“Ethan’s passion and dedication to helping student-athletes develop to their potential makes him one of the elite coaches in the country,” Mendoza said. “I am lucky to have been able to work with him the past seven years and I know our players will really enjoy his collaborative approach to training and competing. As a Shorewood native, I know he is excited to come home, and we are thrilled to welcome Ethan, Jenn, Amelia, and Conrad to the Marquette family!”
The 2010 Ball State graduate — where he earned all-conference honors playing volleyball as a setter — also spent time on staff at LSU, Duquesne, Arkansas, and Cincinnati. That season spent with the Bearcats actually coincided with UC winning a Big East tournament title at the McGuire Center in 2011, including a win over Marquette in the semifinals.
This past week saw the addition of Stef Jankiewicz as assistant coach on Mendoza’s staff.
Here’s what Mendoza had to say in the press release:
“We are thrilled to add Stef to our coaching staff,” Mendoza said. “With her experience both playing and coaching, she will be a great resource and mentor for our current team and future Golden Eagles.”
Well, that’s shorter than the Pheister statement, but again: Worked with Pheister for coming up on a decade.
Jankiewicz played for four years at Illinois State and then spent a bonus season of eligibility at Utah before moving on to her coaching career. She was named Missouri Valley Setter of the Year twice, which is pretty good. Jankiewicz’s coaching career to this point has all been at Central Michigan, as she’s been there for three seasons. This past year, she helped guide Allie Korba to MAC Setter of the Year honors, so that’s just transferring knowledge and experience downwards through the generations.
Jankiewicz has a ton of experience playing against Marquette, as the Golden Eagles and the Redbirds faced off four times in three seasons. She averaged 9.3 assists in those four matches, including 47 as Illinois State beat Marquette 3-2 in the second match of the time-shifted spring 2021 season. Three of the four contests were played at the McGuire Center, as MU and ISU played on consecutive days to open up that short spring season.
There isn’t any official press release news about the roster for Marquette right now, but I know how to use the internet. If we compare the Fall 2024 roster to the Spring 2025 roster, there’s already been two changes that we didn’t already know about. Meghan Clifford and Malayah Long are no longer listed as a part of the Marquette roster, which isn’t terribly surprising. Neither one played in the 2024 season, which was the first on campus for both women, and both have elected to transfer to continue their careers following Ryan Theis’ departure. Clifford is already committed to North Carolina, while Long is headed to Michigan State.
That leaves MU with 11 women listed for the spring and another three freshmen theoretically still signed to join the team this summer. That would bring the roster to 14, and if the House settlement gets finalized eventually, that would move the roster limit for volleyball to 18. I have no idea at his point as to what Mendoza thinks about his roster size or what Marquette’s ability to cover 18 scholarships is, so maybe we’ll get additions….. and maybe we won’t?
Follow Anonymous Eagle on social media
Facebook: AnonymousEagle
Instagram: AnonymousEagleSBN
Bluesky: AnonymousEagle