Y’know, I didn’t expect this one.
When Megan Duffy left Marquette, obviously MU voided the letters of intent for the freshmen that Duffy had signed. Two of those signees followed Duffy to Virginia Tech. One of them is leaving after two years…. and Kayl Petersen has elected to end up at Marquette, just like she originally committed waaaaay back in October 2022.
The text of her Instagram post:
God’s timing > my timing. Back where I belong.
Petersen, who is listed as a 6’0” forward on VaTech’s roster page, was a bench component for the Hokies each of the past two seasons, including an NCAA tournament appearance as a #9 seed this season. The catch, however, is that Petersen’s minutes were declining. She averaged 4.2 points and 2.9 minutes in 15.8 minutes a game as a freshman and played 10 minutes more often than not. This past season, it looks like things started out in roughly the same place, playing at least 11 minutes in each of nine of Virginia Tech’s first 10 games of the season. By the end of the year, she was averaging just 10.6 minutes a night and chipping in just 2.2 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. Petersen saw double digit minutes just once in VaTech’s last eight games before putting up 15 minutes in their 70-60 loss to Oregon in the NCAA tournament.
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Maybe it’s not anything having to do with her playing time. Maybe Petersen just wanted to be back in Wisconsin, where she went to high school in Waupun.
We’ll see how this all fits together eventually, but I think I can safely say that Kayl Petersen is going to have to perform better at Marquette than she did at Virginia Tech if the Golden Eagles are going to be successful. She had a turnover rate north of 22% in both of her seasons, and she’s shooting just 22.6% from behind the three-point line on 62 total attempts in her career. Her two-point shooting is mostly fine at 50.8%, and she was actually in the top 500 in rebounding rate on both ends of the floor this past season according to Her Hoop Stats. Clearly she can contribute something, but for the moment, we can still expect that she’s going to have to step it up in 2026-27.
Why? Well……
Petersen’s commitment gives Marquette eight players for next season. Three of them are true freshmen, one of them is a redshirt freshman coming off a knee injury last October. I think it’s good that Cara Consuegra might be actually able to get through a season with this number of players, but even with Petersen listed at 6’0”, the Golden Eagles are lacking in size right now.
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With seven roster spots still open, there is obviously more than enough ways to solve for that particular problem. I would say that Consuegra needs at least two more players just so the team can play five-on-five in practice if nothing else. I doubt they’ll get all the way up to 15, the NCAA maximum, but I guess we’ll wait and see….
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