In-State Rivalry Returns to the Al on Saturday

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University women’s basketball team renews its in-state rivalry with Wisconsin on Saturday, hosting the Badgers at the Al McGuire Center. The 2 p.m. CT contest is the first of back-to-back games for the Golden Eagles against the Big Ten.

Saturday’s game will feature on ESPN+ with Karley Marotta and Chloe Marotta on the call.

THE STARTING FIVE

• Marquette opened the 51st season in its history on Monday afternoon with an 89-57 win over Winthrop. It was the Golden Eagles’ fifth straight win in their home opener and 14th win at the Al McGuire Center under Head Coach Cara Consuegra (14-2).
• Point guard Jaidynn Mason stole the show, going on the attack from the opening tip. The senior put on a well-rounded display, pouring 25 points, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out five assists. The 25 points was just one shy of her career high, and was her first 20-point game at Marquette.
• Playing 25 times in their history, Marquette and Wisconsin will renew their rivalry which had been on hiatus since 2017. The Golden Eagles are 12-13 in the series but won the last three games in the series.
• Consuegra has a long history against the Badgers which dates back to her playing days at Iowa, when she was the Director of Basketball Operations at Penn State and when she was an Assistant Coach at Marquette. She is 14-4 in her career when her teams have played Wisconsin.
• 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.

FLASHING BACK – GAME 1 vs. WINTHROP

• Marquette won its fifth-straight home opener.
• MU’s 11 made 3-pointers was its most since Dec. 17, 2023 when the Golden Eagles made 11 against Appalachian State.
• MU outrebounded Winthrop 48-28.
• Marquette’s 27 assists matched its season-high from last season (vs. Stonehill, 12/21/24).
• Of the Golden Eagles’ 27 assists, Skylar Forbes, Jaidynn Mason and Lee Volker each had five apiece.
• Mason recorded her 46th career double-figure game, 15th with Marquette.
• Mason’s 25 points gave the senior her first 20-point game at MU, and fifth of her career. The total was one shy of her career high.
• Skylar Forbes posted the 32nd double-figure scoring game of her career with 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
• Forbes also tied her career high in assists with five and made 3-pointers with three.
• Halle Vice recorded the eighth double-double of her career with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

A RIVALRY RENEWED

When Marquette and Wisconsin square-off at the Al on Saturday, it will have been 2,896 days since the last time the two in-state rivals have met (Dec. 4, 2017). The two had met nearly every season for more than two decades prior.

• Wisconsin holds the all-time series lead at 13-12. The Golden Eagles claimed the last three in the series which came after the Badgers won the previous three meetings.

CONSUEGRA AGAINST THE BADGERS

No stranger to facing Wisconsin in her career, Marquette head coach Cara Consuegra has been on the opposite bench of Wisconsin 18 times in her career.

• The first six came during her playing her career at Iowa (1997-2001) where she was 4-2.
• The next six came while serving as the Director of Basketball Operations at Penn State (2001-04). The Nittany Lions were 6-0 while she was there.
• When Consuegra moved outside of the Big 10, she again came up against the Badgers six more times during her time as an assistant coach with Marquette (2004-11). Like her playing days, she was 4-2. Saturday will mark her first game against the Badgers as MU’s head coach.

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.

PICKED TWO

Marquette was picked to finish second in the annual BIG EAST preseason poll with 85 points, 15 behind UConn and five ahead of Seton Hall.

• In October 2024, the Golden Eagles were picked to finish 10th. The eight-spot jump from one year’s preseason poll to the next is a first in BIG EAST history.
• The previous high was a six-spot jump which had occurred multiple times. MU was the last team do that, going from ninth in 2016 to third in 2017.

ONE, TWO, THREE

Marquette landed a trio of Golden Eagles on the on the 2025-26 BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Preseason All-BIG EAST Team. It is the most preseason selections for MU since 2018 when the program had four preseason honorees.

• Fifth-year guard Lee Volker, junior forward Skylar Forbes and junior guard Halle Vice were Marquette’s three selections. Forbes and Volker were both unanimous selections following their postseason all-conference honors last March.
• Forbes was an All-BIG EAST First Team selection in 2024-25 while Volker was on the Second.

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.