Nov. 18, 2006

Box Score |  Notes

DAYTON, Ohio - Cheryl Hegemann tallied 20 kills and three players had 20 or more digs as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee claimed a 30-24, 35-37, 30-23, 30-26 win over UW-Green Bay Saturday in the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament.

The top-seeded Panthers (23-5), who tied a school record with their 14th-straight win, will play UIC in Sunday afternoon's championship match.

Sarah Moore added 17 kills, Melissa David 14 and Monica Ferguson 12 for UWM, which has now beaten its in-state rivals from Green Bay (15-15) in 27 of the last 29 meetings between the two schools.

Abby Bergsman had 18 kills and Holly Visser 17 to lead the Phoenix.

The storylines for the Panthers included the play of their defense, which collected a season-best 106 digs. Becky Peters led the way with 22 digs while Leanne Felsing added 21 and freshman Lauren Felsing pitched-in with 20. Plus, the play off the bench of Ferguson and freshman Kellye Zaporski (11 digs, three service aces) made its mark.

"I thought our defense really won us the match," UWM head coach Kathy Litzau said. "Even better, I thought we had two freshmen come through in the clutch for us, with Lauren and Kellye really stepping up and making plays down the stretch. Plus, Monica was swinging hard at crucial times and scored some key points for us."

After the teams split the first two games, UWM pulled out games three and four to claim the win.

Milwaukee recovered from a slow start to pull away in game three. Green Bay scored the first four points of the frame but UWM struck back to take the lead for good at 7-6 on a UWGB error. The lead hit 11-7 on a kill by Hegemann and grew to 21-14 on another Hegemann kill. The Phoenix never got closer than five points the rest of the way, as an ace by Felsing made it 26-18 before back-to-back kills from Hegemann closed things out.

UWM again led most of the way in game four but could never truly pull away. The Panthers took the lead for good at 16-15 on a kill by Felsing and extended the lead to 23-18 on a kill by Moore. The lead was still 27-22 after a kill by David before the Phoenix pulled back within 27-24 and again to within three at 29-26. But, a block by Ferguson and Hegemann wrapped up the game and the match for the Panthers.

"I thought in game two Green Bay really forced us into a lot of situation where we made errors, but we turned that around in games three and four," Litzau said. "Our middles are always so consistently good, but they can't do it alone. It was good to see our outsides step up in games three and four and push back when Green Bay threatened us in the fourth game."

The Panthers won a first game marked by three long runs. UWM had the first burst, using a 9-2 run to claim a 23-14 advantage. But, the Phoenix struck back, scoring 10 of the next 11 points to tie the game at 24. After a UWM timeout, the Panthers took the lead back on a kill by David and then closed the game out with a flurry. Kills from Jamie Gabrielsen, Moore and David made it 28-24 and UWM then closed out the game on a Green Bay error and another kill by Moore.

Green Bay looked like it was going to pull away in game two before the Panthers mounted a late rally and pushed the game to its limits. The Phoenix held a 25-20 lead in the frame before Milwaukee responded to tie the game at 28 on a Moore kill. UWM then had game-point opportunities at 30-29, 31-30 and 33-32, while Green Bay had chances to wrap things up at 32-31, 34-33, and 35-34. But, the Phoenix had the final surge, going ahead 36-35 on a Rauen kill before another kill by Rauen wrapped things up and evened the match.

Sunday's championship match will start at 2:30 p.m. EST/1:30 p.m. CST. The winner of the match will receive an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.