Nov. 22, 2009

Box Score
Tournament Video
Postmatch Audio - Susie Johnson
Postmatch Audio - Lauren Felsing
Postmatch Audio - Natalie Schmitting

CLEVELAND, Ohio - After a loss at Wright State on Oct. 11, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's volleyball team had just five wins to its credit and stood in eighth place in the Horizon League.

Six weeks later, the Panthers are again champions.

Maddie Sueppel had 16 kills and tournament most valuable player Lauren Felsing led a stellar defensive effort with 16 digs as Milwaukee claimed a 27-25, 19-25, 25-19, 25-13 win over Cleveland State Sunday afternoon at Woodling Gymnasium in the title match of the 2009 Horizon League Volleyball Tournament.

The third-seeded Panthers (16-14), who have now won 11-straight matches, never trailed in the final two sets to claim their sixth league tournament crown and eighth NCAA Tournament berth.

Natalie Schmitting added 11 kills for an offense that was able to score consistently with its middle attack. And, Felsing was one of five players to reach double figures in digs, as Lauren Hintze collected a collegiate-best 20 and Jena Berg added 19.

Cleveland State (26-8), which won the league regular season title, committed 31 hitting errors as the Panthers frustrated the Vikings throughout the match.

That allowed this to become a day for Milwaukee to cap an amazing turnaround. The loss in Dayton last month put the Panthers in a position it never dreamed of after being pegged to win a seventh-straight regular season league title. Now, UWM is in perhaps just as unimaginable a position, hoisting the championship trophy and awaiting an NCAA Tournament opponent.

"This team did the 180 that we talked about in the locker room at Wright State after that last loss," UWM head coach Susie Johnson said. "It was an incredible turnaround. We just have so much momentum and we're getting better every single time we play."

"It is incredible to come back from the first half of the season when we were really struggling to find what our team was like," Felsing said. "To come back and get 11-straight wins is incredible to do, so I am just so proud of our team."

Compared to how difficult the first seven weeks of the season were for the Panthers, UWM made it look easy once they held off a valiant upset effort from Green Bay Friday. Milwaukee attacked quickly in the middle against the Vikings, with Sueppel and Schmitting the offensive stars. That slowly opened holes on the outside for Kerri Schuh (nine kills), Mary Beth O'Brien (eight kills) and Berg (eight kills).

"That was our plan - to go quick in the middle," Johnson said. "All of these teams are so good in our conference on defense, so you have to make it harder for them. By doing a quicker attack, it makes it harder because they don't have as much time to dig. It opened up other attacks for us once we set the middle."

Cleveland State, meanwhile, could never get its big hitters on track. League Player of the Year Beth Greulich had just 11 kills but nine errors, while Liz Fazio had 15 kills and 10 errors. The Vikings hit .229 in the second frame and seemed to be back on track, but then hit just .058 in the third and .026 in the fourth.

The only set that was ever in doubt was the first. Each team built a three-point lead and then Cleveland State had to fight off a pair of set-point chances for Milwaukee. The Vikings couldn't do it a third time, though, with a pair of errors followed by a kill from Schuh pushing UWM ahead in the match.

Cleveland State then controlled the second set and the stage seemed set for a repeat of last season's five-set title match won by Milwaukee. Instead, UWM started the third set with a 5-1 lead and eventually led by as many as eight points in the frame. The Panthers did even better in the fourth, scoring 10 of the first 11 points to take complete control.

"It is a different feeling because it wasn't so tight this time," Felsing said of comparing the five-setter last year to Sunday's win. "It wasn't that last touch, save the game, that type of thing. We were taking care of business and we did what we wanted to do."

The win helps make the first seven weeks of the season even more of a distant memory, and allows the season to continue for at least two more weeks.

"I don't even want to look back, but it's really amazing how far we have come along and how many changes we have made," Schmitting, who earned all-tournament honors, said. "It's really unbelievable that we went from eighth place to first."

And as for the team in Milwaukee uniforms that went 2-6 in the first half of league play, Felsing says it will never be seen again.

"They're gone - long gone. I think we've let it creep up but we have found a way to push it down and become the team we were supposed to be this whole time."