WBB Travels To Windy City For Thursday Tilt With DePaul
MILWAUKEE – The Marquette women’s basketball team opens BIG EAST play this week beginning at DePaul on Thursday evening. The Golden Eagles and Blue Demons will tipoff at Wintrust Arena at 8 p.m. CT.
[inarticled]The game will broadcast on Peacock with Kylen Mills and Chloe Marotta on the call.
THE STARTING FIVE
- Marquette heads to DePaul with a seven-game win streak over the Blue Demons, its longest win streak in the series. The streak includes wins in the Golden Eagles’ last three trips to Chicago.
- Marquette is coming off back-to-back losses last week at the Coconut Hoops. It it is the first time MU has lost back-to-back regular season games since its first two games of the 2024-25 season (at UCF, at Illinois).
- With more depth in 2025-26, the Golden Eagles’ strength still lies within their starting five which has not changed through the opening five games. The group is accounting for 80.9% of the team’s scoring thus far. Four of MU’s starters have already posted 20-point games.
- Marquette continues to be the only team in the BIG EAST with four players who rank in the Top 20 in the league in scoring. Skylar Forbes, Jaidynn Mason, Halle Vice and Lee Volker are averaging a combined 49.6 points per game.
- Marquette’s strength this season comes in its experience and continuity as the program is the only one in Division I women’s college basketball to return all of its players from the 2024-25 season.
BY THE NUMBERS
16 – During Marquette’s seven game win streak over DePaul, MU has outscored the Blue Demons by an average of 16.9 points per game. Only one of the seven games were decided bly less than 10 points.
4 – Marquette has four 20-point performances this season all coming from different players. MU is the only team in the BIG EAST which has four players with a 20-point game this season.
LAKESIDE NEIGHBORS TO THE SOUTH
Separated by about 90 miles, Marquette and DePaul have been playing one another since 1978. While the Blue Demons hold the series lead at 49-39, it is the Golden Eagles who have controlled the series recently. MU has won the last seven meetings dating back to a 20-point win in the BIG EAST tournament in 2022.
- Marquette’s seven-game win streak is the longest for either team in the series since DePaul won the first 11 games in a row (1978-90).
ONE OF TWO
Not just a shot blocker, not just a 3-point shooter, Skylar Forbes is proving early this season that she is both. Forbes is currently shooting 37.8% from deep while also posting 2.1 blocks per game.
- Forbes is one of two players in the country currently averaging 2.0 blocks per game and shooting over 35% from 3 (min. 20 attempts) along with UC Davis’ Megan Norris.
USING HER LENGTH
While not a prototypical post, 6-foot-3 Skylar Forbes uses her length well on the defensive end. After breaking the Marquette record for blocks in a season last year with 56, the junior hasn’t slowed up. Adding 11 more to total this season, she is up to 99 for her career.
- Forbes moved to sixth on MU’s all-time blocks list following four against Iowa State, passing Liza Karlen. Her career total stands at 103.
- Forbes’ 2.1 blocks per game this season ranks No. 2 in the Big East and 21st in the NCAA.
VICE GRIP
Marquette’s top rebounder a season ago, preseason All-BIG EAST selection Halle Vice has showed no let up on the glass through five games this year. The junior’s 7.9 rebounds per game currently ranks fifth the BIG EAST.
- Vice had double-digit rebounding numbers in her first two outings of the season.
THE X-FACTOR
While Skylar Forbes, Halle Vice and Lee Volker were the All-BIG EAST preseason selections, Marquette coaches have all said that senior point guard Jaidynn Mason is the X-factor. While the season is still young, Mason has already shown why coaches have put that moniker on her. In the season opener she dropped 25 points against Winthrop. In Game 2 against Wisconsin, she ignited a 10-0 run in the final three minutes with two blocks and a steal on three consecutive defensive possessions.
- Mason leads the team in assists (3.4) and steals (2.0).
WATCH YOURSELF INSIDE
With length and high IQs on an experienced squad, Marquette has made a habit of getting their hands on opponents’ shots this year. MU sits second in the BIG EAST and ranks No. 26 nationally this season with 5.3 per game.
- Skylar Forbes may pace the team with 2.1 per game but there is balance with Jaidynn Mason and Halle Vice next at 0.7 per game.
GET TO THE LINE
In each of the Golden Eagles’ first two games, MU attempted at least 18 free throws. At Minnesota, they attempted just three. The charity stripe has been just that–charity for Marquette–as the team is shooting 77.4%, the 33rd-highest mark in the NCAA this year.
- Thirty-eight of the team’s 93 attempts have come from Lee Volker (15-of-16) and Jaidynn Mason (19-of-22).
THEY’RE ALL BACK…WITH ADDITIONS
With fifth years awarded to Abbey Cracknell and Lee Volker, Marquette heads into the 2025-26 season as the only Division I women’s basketball team to return every player from its 2024-25 roster.
- Of the returners, two are fifth years, six are seniors and five are juniors.
- Additionally, MU added three players in transfer Jordan Muelemens and freshmen JJ Barnes and Kam Herring.
ONE OF THE BEST IN THE COUNTRY
On Oct. 30, Marquette’s Skylar Forbes was selected to the 2025-26 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Women’s College Player of the Year Watch List, presented by AXIA Time. The 6-foot-3 junior forward was one of 50 student-athletes named to the watch list.
- Of the 50 players on the watch list, Forbes is just one of five from outside the Power 4.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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