Yadhira Anchante & Aubrey Hamilton Transfer In To Marquette Volleyball

If you were a little worried about where Marquette volleyball is going after seven seniors departed the program after the 2021 season, that’s not crazy talk. However, any fears you may have had can be slightly alleviated after head coach Ryan Theis has added two transfers to his roster for the 2022 campaign.

Outside hitter Aubrey Hamilton has transferred in to Marquette from Notre Dame, while setter Yadhira Anchante has joined the Golden Eagles from the junior college ranks at Iowa Western Community College. Both women will join the roster immediately and be available for spring activities, and they will both have three years of eligibility remaining.

Hamilton is transferring back closer to home. The 6’2” hitter is a product of Arrowhead High School in Hartland, just a wee bit west of Milwaukee. She won a state title with the Warhawks in 2019 and earned the nod as Gatorade Player of the Year for the entire state, not to mention Third Team All-American status from Under Armour. She moved on to Notre Dame where she played in 47 matches in the two 2021 seasons and averaged 2.94 kills while hitting .191. She was named to the ACC’s All-Freshman team in the spring and led the 13-15 Irish in both kills and points.

Here’s head coach Ryan Theis on Hamilton:

“As a local product, we’ve been familiar with Aubrey for a long time,” Theis said. “She has a terrific arm and can score a lot of points from the front and back row. We expect her to be a big contributor for us and are happy she chose to continue her collegiate career back home.”

Anchante won back-to-back NJCAA Division 1 national championships with Iowa Western and was named national Player of the Year in each campaign. She capped her career there by being named MVP of the NJCAA tournament while guiding her squad to a 33-4 record this fall.

Seems good.

She led the country in assists at 11.34 per set, plus she added over 450 digs for her team and hit a perfectly respectable .261 along the way as well.

Here’s Theis again:

“This fall we started looked into some junior college players and Yadira popped out at us,” Theis said. “She’s a great teammate and locates hitters very well. We are excited to get her into the gym this spring and look forward to seeing what made her such a winner the past two seasons.”

With Hope Werch and Taylor Wolf gone due to the end of their eligibility and Hannah Vanden Berg’s status up in the air after her season ending knee injury, Hamilton will get a shot to step in immediately as a starter at outside hitter. Wolf and Claire Mosher split MU’s time at setter this past season, so Anchante has an opportunity to compete with and/or partner up with Caroline Dragani and Ella Foti for the setting responsibilities when 2022 rolls around.