[1] Van Iersel teamed up with Marloes Wesselink in 2005 playing in the Eredivisie of beach volleyball in the Netherlands (the highest league in the country).

Iersel entered the Under-20s European Championships in Israel, eventually winning the event and taking her first international gold medal.

[citation needed] In 2006 Iersel travelled to Marseille to play in a FIVB World Tour event for the first time, and finished 41st.

[3] Marleen van Iersel participated in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio together with her teammate Madelein Meppelink, with whom she had teamed since 2014.

They made it to the round of 16, and lost to the Swiss team of Heidrich and Zumkehr in 3 sets (21–19, 13–21, 10–15) Iersel and her wife Myrthe Ramond got married in 2016.