Aug. 29, 2008

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's volleyball team put together an impressive rally to force NCAA qualifier Ole Miss into a fifth set before falling, 25-17, 25-21, 19-25, 6-25, 16-14, Friday afternoon on the opening day of the Panther Invitational at the Klotsche Center.

UWM struggled through the first two sets but completely turned that around in the third and fourth frames. Then, UWM battled back to tie the fifth set at 13 and again at 14 before Ole Miss claimed the final two points for the victory.

Senior Becky Peters led Milwaukee with 21 kills, but a youthful UWM squad got plenty of other contributions from underclassmen. Redshirt freshman Keri Schuh had 13 kills while sophomore middles Maddie Sueppel and Natalie Schmitting combined for 17 kills. In all, freshmen and sophomores combined for 36 of Milwaukee's 60 kills.

Katie Norris led Ole Miss with 19 kills.

The match was truly a story of extremes for the Panthers, who looked overwhelmed at times in the first two sets before completely outclassing their high-level SEC foe in sets three and four.

"We did a lot of really great things and we made an enormous turnaround from games one and two to games three and four," UWM head coach Susie Johnson said. "We know now it is there - we can be very, very good. That is a very good team we played - an NCAA Tournament team from the SEC with lots of big, very good athletes. It is there, and we just have to learn from this."

Ole Miss controlled the first set from start to finish. The Rebels never trailed in the frame, building a 12-7 lead after a UWM error before eventually pushing the edge to 18-12 on another Panther miscue. Milwaukee did pull within 18-13 on a kill by Peters but would never get closer. A kill by Emily Jones pushed the Rebels edge to 23-14 and a kill by Norris eventually wrapped things up for Ole Miss.

Things looked brighter for UWM in the second set, with a kill by Peters and an Ole Miss error giving the Panthers a 14-10 advantage. But, the Rebels quickly recovered, scoring six of the next seven points to claim a 16-15 lead. The Panthers did tie the set again at 16, 17, 19, 20 and 21, but Ole Miss then scored the final four points of the frame to claim a 2-0 edge in the match.

UWM bounced back with a solid performance in the third set. In fact, the Panthers pushed out to an 11-8 lead on a Peters kill and then led 13-9 after a kill by Schuh. Ole Miss rallied to tie the set at 13 but UWM would lead the rest of the way. An ace by Peters pushed the lead to 17-13 and a block by Natalie Chery and Mackenzie Millis made it 21-16. The Panthers then wrapped up the frame thanks to three-straight Ole Miss errors.

It was all Milwaukee in the fourth game, with an 8-0 start quickly ballooning into a 20-4 edge. UWM wound up with 16 kills in the set to just two for the Rebels, as the Panthers hit a stellar .433 in the frame.

Then, in the fifth set, Ole Miss built leads of 11-8 and 13-9 before the Panthers rallied to tie the frame at 13 on a kill by Schuh. The teams traded the next two points before kills by Norris and Caitlin Weiss gave the Rebels the victory.

In action earlier Friday at the Panther Invitational, 18th-ranked Iowa State controlled the third and fourth sets en route to a 3-1 win over Illinois State. The teams split the first two sets before the Cyclones claimed a 25-16 win in the third set and a 25-21 victory in the fourth frame.

Victoria Henson had 17 kills to lead a balance attack for Iowa State, which hit .243 for the match while limiting Illinois State to a .163 hitting clip.

Action in the Panther Invitational continues Friday night with a pair of matches. Illinois State and Ole Miss will play at 5 p.m. before UWM and Iowa State square off at 7:30 p.m.