Marquette Volleyball: Taylor Louis Announced She’s Transferring To Iowa

On Thursday evening, Marquette volleyball outside hitter Taylor Louis took to Instagram to announced that she’s transferring to Iowa.

Her announcement (minus emojis) reads as follows:

This is long overdue, but! These people right here have made my Marquette experience something to remember and be proud of. I couldn't have asked for better teammates, friends, and role models during my time here at MU. We've been through some DIRT but were able to tread through it and get to the end together. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the future holds for all of you and I wish you the best of luck. Now, it's time for me to move on to something B1GGER and follow my own path. I will miss making memories with you guys and hope to see you soon! (I'll be back in the spring). Thank you for everything!!! #GoHawkeyesBaby

The Marquette Wire reports that Marquette has acknowledged the departure at this time, but as of yet, there is no official announcement or statement from the athletic department or head coach Ryan Theis.

Louis was an all-Big East First Team performer in both of her two seasons wearing blue and gold. She became the fastest Golden Eagle to 1,000 career kills and finishes her time at Marquette with 1,148 kills, the sixth most kills in program history. Yes, in just two seasons.

By transferring to Iowa, Louis re-joins head coach Bond Shymansky. He was the head coach at Marquette when Louis was originally recruited to Milwaukee and when she signed a letter of intent in November 2013. It’s the second time in three seasons under Theis that Marquette has lost a Shymansky recruited sophomore that led the team in kills during the previous season. Autumn Bailey departed Marquette following Theis’ first year as head coach for Michigan State.

With Louis gone, Theis finds himself with a second reconstruction project since taking the job. When Bailey departed after the 2014 season, it ended up leaving Marquette with just 25% of their total number of attacks returning for the next season. Theis turned the offense over to Louis, and she set the single season kills record as a redshirt freshman in 2015. This time around, Theis will need to replace Louis, along with middle hitter Meghan Niemann, setter Sara Blasier, and libero Lauren Houg. Niemann was a four time all-Big East First Team performer for Marquette and set a new program record for career total blocks and career assisted blocks, Blaiser finished her two years in Milwaukee with one of the 10 best assist totals in program history, and Houg racked up the second most digs by any MU player ever. Essentially, the core of the team has been ripped out, although those last three departures are due to those three women ending their eligibility.

Theis was always going to have to rework things heading into the 2017 season, but that reworking was going to be a lot easier to do when Louis was going to be there to lead the offense. Jenna Rosenthal (2.30/set) is MU’s new returning kills leader, and the departure of Louis opens up a hole at outside hitter. Allie Barber and Madeline Mosher are the most likely candidates to take over Louis’ playing time, but Amanda Green, Louis’ old teammate from Niles North, could end up stepping into the vacuum as well. Marquette added two outside hitters during the fall signing period in Kortlyn Henderson and Hope Werch, the latter of whom was an Under Armour honorable mention All-American.

(h/t @AndyGold24)