Class of 2024 Forward Kayl Petersen Commits To Marquette

We have a new Golden Eagle to discuss!

Back last week, head coach Megan Duffy and Marquette women’s basketball picked up their first commitment for the Class of 2024. Kayl Petersen, a forward from Waupun, Wisconsin, announced that she will be playing for Duffy and the Golden Eagles.

Here’s her commitment announcement text for posterity’s sake:

I want to start off by thanking my family for everything they have done for me; from endless amounts of hours in the gym to always encouraging me to be the best on and off the court. Thank you to my WI Flight coaches for assisting me in this process and helping me become a better player. I also want to thank my HS coaching staff for pushing me in practice and helping me understand the game at a higher level. Thank you to my trainers for developing my game and keeping me healthy while doing so! I’d also like to give a shoutout to the Waupun community and to my teammates for always believing in me and helping me accomplish my dreams. Lastly, I want to thank God for providing me with this amazing opportunity and keeping me humble during this process. After many prayers and talks with my family, I have decided to pursue my basketball and academic career at Marquette University! Thank you Coach Duffy and staff for believing in me! GO GOLDEN EAGLES!

Marquette first made a scholarship offer to Petersen back in the summer of 2021. Conveniently, I don’t have to do a lot of explaining about why Petersen chose the Golden Eagles since getting that offer. She talked to Mark McMullen at WiscNews.com:

Waupun junior Kayl Petersen has known for quite some time that Marquette University was where she wanted to play college basketball.

When she was younger, she liked the law school and had an uncle attend Marquette.

...

“I think a lot of it had to do with being closer to home,” Petersen said. “I think I owe it to my family after they’ve done so much for me. Then they can watch me play.”

...

“When I went to practice, one thing that stood out to me was the energy brought to the gym every day,” Petersen said. “They could come from playing in a game, they could come from having a scrimmage last Saturday. They had a really good practice yesterday. They were still high on energy. I almost feel there’s no time to feel sorry for yourself. If you do make a mistake, you have teammates right there to pick you up.”

I feel like we should relay Petersen’s story about how she informed Duffy and her staff that she wanted to make her commitment to MU:

And after building relationships with many interested schools and seeing how some operate, Petersen’s latest visit to Marquette on Sunday was the one where she felt she needed to tell Golden Eagles coach Megan Duffy she wanted to commit.

“I was taking pictures and I asked if they had a sign that said committed,” Petersen said. “They were like, ‘Yeah, but for people that were committed.’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ They asked, ‘Seriously?’

“It was so funny.”

It’s not that Duffy and her staff were surprised that Petersen wanted to commit to Marquette, if she’s visiting and taking pictures and so forth, clearly the Golden Eagles are serious about recruiting Petersen, who is one of the top prospects in the state in her class. The surprise was clearly because Petersen is heading into her junior season of hoops at the moment, and it’s just kind of early for that kind of thing.

Petersen is a 6’1” forward hailing from Waupun, Wisconsin. That’s particularly notable, since Waupun is coming off a Wisconsin Division 3 state title last season. They beat Freedom, 63-42, in the title game to win the school’s first ever state title in girls’ basketball. Petersen, who was a sophomore last season, finished that game with 15 points, including four three-pointers, and seven rebounds. This came just days after she put up 22, including 14 in the first seven minutes, in a 47-29 semifinal victory over Whitefish Bay Dominican. At one point in that contest, Petersen was outscoring Dominican 16-4.

These aren’t outside the regular numbers for Petersen. WisSports.net has 29 games worth of scoring stats for her from last season, and she averaged 16.9 points per game while shooting 34% from long range. Petersen also added 9.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 2.2 blocks an outing. Again, these are all sophomore year numbers, and Petersen was pretty good out of the gate as a freshman for Waupun as well: 14.8 points, 33% from the arc, 8.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 2.0 steals, and 2.0 blocks.

Here’s 90 seconds of highlights from spring 2021, after Petersen’s freshman year:

60 seconds of clips from last November?

Here’s the newly updated scholarship chart!

As mentioned up at the top, Petersen is Marquette’s first commitment for the Class of 2024. For the time being, we don’t know exactly how much recruiting the Golden Eagles will be doing for 20223 still. Skylar Forbes and Halle Vice are both committed, but it remains possible that Duffy is holding the three definitively available scholarships for Nia Clark, Jordan King, and Kennedi Myles if they choose to return for their COVID bonus season of eligibility. Everything about 2024 is kind of up in the air as a result of that. Could those spots go to freshmen and thus be occupied already when Petersen arrives on campus? Or will they be coming open that summer and Duffy will be looking to put freshmen into those spots?

I’m leaning towards “they’re being held for the seniors to return” because we’re not that far away from the fall signing period.... but hey, it’s a long way between now and the start of the 2023-24 season, y’know?