WBB Reunites with Abbey Cracknell & Lee Volker

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As we moved farther and farther away from the conclusion of the college basketball season, it started seeming more likely that Marquette Women’s basketball coach Cara Consuegra planned to enter the 2025-26 season with 13 players on her team list. She brought in Jordan Meulemans through the transfer portal. And you know what, having 13 people involved is quite a crowd; it’ll be difficult to include everyone consistently in the gameplay, which is okay.

And then

On Tuesday, Marquette revealed that seniors Abbey Cracknell and Lee Volker have decided to return for an additional season in 2025-26, using their remaining eligibility.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJCIOYpOvvH/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading

Both players received recognition during Senior Night at the conclusion of the regular season, making this development quite unexpected in many ways. Their honors were well-deserved too. Cracknell spent two years competing for Gulf Coast State College prior to joining Marquette for her last two seasons. During her tenure with the Golden Eagles, she participated in 50 matches, scoring an average of 1.2 points and grabbing 1.3 rebounds within 8.5 minutes each game. Regardless of the coaching transition from Megan Duffy to Cara Consuegra at Marquette, her playtime remained relatively consistent.

Regarding Volker, she participated in 39 matches over two years at Duke prior to moving to Marquette. During her time as part of the Blue Devils from 2022-23, she took part in 12 contests with six starts, logging a total of 176 minutes. However, she left the squad mid-season and transferred to Marquette afterward. In her junior year within collegiate basketball, Volker averaged around 15 minutes per game coming off the bench. The following season, playing for both the Golden Eagles and Consuegra, she started all 32 games, scoring an average of 12.6 points, grabbing 4.6 rebounds, dishing out 2.8 assists, and recording 1.5 steals each contest.

To put it briefly, it clearly appeared that both women had lost their eligibility. Additionally, it seems evident that Marquette wasn’t anticipating this turn of events, considering the Senior Night aspect. I assume that Cracknell maintained her eligibility through some means. Vanderbilt's quarterback, Diego Pavia, is filing a lawsuit against the NCAA. In relation to the concept that one cannot restrict a player's opportunity to make NIL earnings simply because they attended junior college briefly, I am not entirely certain how this applies to Cracknell, who comes from Australia. My understanding has been that international athletes aren't eligible for NIL benefits... however, considering that colleges could begin compensating athletes directly if the House agreement is accepted, everything seems interconnected. Regarding Volker, I assume the NCAA is providing her with a waiver due to what happened during her sophomore year at Duke which resulted in her leaving halfway through the season.

By the way! I'm entirely speculating since they released the returns on Tuesday morning shortly after 9 am... and it's been about 11 hours, yet there hasn’t been any sort of press release clarifying things. This seems rather odd!

And here’s a fresh scholarship table...

Last season, Marquette showed improvement throughout the campaign. With the full roster coming back next year and with additional contributions from a transfer player and two freshmen, there’s potential for even greater success. It’s reasonable to suggest that without those initial setbacks against UCF and Bowling Green—when Consuegra was still adjusting to coaching the team and the players were new to one another—they might have been contenders for an NCAA tournament spot. Should the Golden Eagles resume their upward trajectory from late spring 2025 into the following year, prospects look bright for achieving significant accomplishments in spring 2026.

Just so you know: I wanted to mention that Ayuen Akot and Aryelle Stevens attended a junior college for two years prior to joining Marquette. Unless Marquette changes their classification when the 2025-26 roster page becomes available online, I will continue to list them as seniors. GoMarquette.com .

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