Marquette Volleyball Announces The Transfer Of Caroline Dragani

Let’s just say it out loud: Marquette women’s volleyball published a press release announcing the addition of an incoming transfer and there is nothing else to discuss. This counts as news around these parts.

The transfer in question is Caroline Dragani, who joins Marquette after one year at Portland State. Let’s just turn it over to the press release for the relevant data on Dragani:

Dragani is a native of Brookfield, Wisconsin and was the top-ranked freshman setter in the Big Sky Conference with 7.91 assists in the 2019 campaign. She started in 24 of 28 matches and ranked third on the Vikings with 2.14 digs per set. Prior to joining Portland State, Dragani won two state championships at Catholic Memorial High School and earned all-conference accolades. She finished her club career as a member of the Milwaukee Sting.

Hey, that’s neat. Because it’s not in there, we do have to add that PSU went 10-19 in 2019, with a 6-12 record in Big Sky action. “Top-ranked freshman” is code for “eighth in assists in an 11 team conference.” The Vikings missed out on the Big Sky tournament by way of a tiebreaker with Montana, and thus ended their season on November 21, 2019, wit a loss at Northern Colorado.

In any case, I suspect that this is a situation where Dragani was looking for something new and Marquette was happy to provide it for her. As you can see from the clip from the press release, the 5’11” Dragani is a local after starring at Catholic Memorial. I have to imagine that being closer to home what with the pandemic and all became a priority for Dragani, which led to her interest in Marquette.

The Golden Eagles, on the other hand, suddenly found themselves with only one true setter on the active roster after Sarah Rose was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma in the fall. While fellow transfer Taylor Wolf was listed as a right side hitter and setter in the press release announcing her arrival, pinning Marquette’s entire setting situation on 1) Claire Mosher’s health and 2) Wolf’s ability to slide over to replace Mosher if need be is not a very solid way to go about running a college volleyball season. We’ll have to wait to see if head coach Ryan Theis still operates a two setter rotation as he did the past two years with Lauren Speckman and Sarah Rose, or if he’ll switch back to a singular setter for whatever kind of 2020 fall season in the spring that we get... or even the theoretical 2021 fall season.

As you’re reading this, we’re less than a month away from when Marquette is allowed by NCAA rules to operate a spring season to make up for the lost fall season.... and there is no word on a schedule from either the MU athletic office or the Big East home office in New York.