#25 Marquette Volleyball Preview: at Northern Iowa & vs Drake The Golden Eagles head to northeast Iowa for a pair of weekend contests. Share this story Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images Well, look. We knew there were going to be bumps in the road for Marquette women’s volleyball as the season got going. Head coach Ryan Theis did not shy away from challenging his squad with the non-conference schedule, and that was the right decision given that the NCAA tournament will have fewer than normal at-large bids this season. Marquette has to prove that they belong in the field, and that means playing good competition outside the Big East, even while Theis assembles his rotations on the fly to a certain degree. There are seven returning players on this roster and eight newcomers. Marquette’s starting lineup — seven women if you count the libero — in their opening two matches of the season featured five women who had never started a match for Marquette before last Friday night. Three of them had never played for Marquette before.