GREENWOOD, Ind. – College Sports Communicators announced the Academic All-District Team for the 2024 volleyball season. Milwaukee earned four selections to the team, the most in a single season in program history.
 
Earning accolades were Kara Erdmann, Lakyn Graves, Madi Malone, and Natalie Schmitz. For Malone, it is her second consecutive selection while Erdmann, Graves, and Schmitz were each selected for the first time in their respective careers.
 
Erdmann has a 3.763 grade-point average entering the fall 2024 semester and is currently studying finance and marketing at Milwaukee. No stranger to accolades, Erdmann was named the Horizon League's Defensive Player of the Year after leading the conference and finished the season second in NCAA Division I in digs with 719 and 5.85 digs per set. Her dig total was also fourth most in a single season in Horizon League history, while also setting the new single-season standard in Milwaukee history.
 
Graves boasts a 4.000 GPA and plans to finish up her degree in biomedical engineering at UW-Milwaukee. She finished the season third in the Horizon League in blocks per set at 1.06 this season, while leading the league in total blocks at 130 in 2024 and in solo blocks with 28 on the year. She also finished the year among the league leaders in service aces and hitting percentage.
 
Malone is also in the process of wrapping up her undergraduate degree in elementary & middle school administration and entered the fall term with a 3.553 grade-point average. In 2024, Malone finished the season fifth in the Horizon League with 439.5 points and was fifth in total kills with 397 on the season. She also led the team and was in the top 10 in the conference in kills per set, finishing at 3.23 per period in 2024.
 
Rounding out the group is Schmitz who has a 3.903 GPA at Milwaukee while studying accounting. This season she was second on the team and 12th in the Horizon League with an average of 2.92 kills per set, while she also finished in the top-10, along with Malone, in total attacking attempts with over 1,000 on the season. She was also in the top-25 in the conference in hitting percentage, ending the year with at .218.
 
Four selections in one season are the most for Milwaukee in program history, with the team having two selections in 2023, 2021, and 2019. Malone joins elite company as she joins three-time recipient Ari Miller who earned honors in 2021, 2022 and 2023, while Jess Grabowski was selected in 2019 and 2021, with Lauren Felsing earning accolades in 2008 and 2009.

Six teams in total from the Horizon League had representation on the Academic All-District listing as Oakland, Purdue Fort Wayne, Robert Morris, and Youngstown State joined Milwaukee with four selections each. IU Indianapolis had two student-athletes recognized.
 
In addition to her All-District selection, Erdmann is also eligible to be selected to the Academic All-America honors. Milwaukee has had three such selections with Felsing earning in both 2008 and 2009, while Cheryl Hegemann named the program's first Academic All-American in 2006.
 
Milwaukee finished the season with 20 wins for the second consecutive season, achieving the mark in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 2010 and 2011 seasons. The Panthers' 15 wins in Horizon League play was the most since 2021, when the team won the regular season crown with a 16-2 mark that season.