Oct. 23, 2010

Box Score

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MILWAUKEE - Kerri Schuh collected her first collegiate triple-double and was one of four players to reach double figures in kills as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee moved back into a first-place tie in the Horizon League with a 21-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-21 win over Cleveland State Saturday afternoon at the Klotsche Center.

Schuh tallied 11 kills, 15 digs and 10 assists, with the 10th assist leading to the match-winning kill by Elizabeth Egerer.

Egerer led Milwaukee (14-8, 10-1 Horizon) with 15 kills, while Natalie Schmitting and Mary Beth O'Brien added 10 apiece.

The Panthers also had 14 blocks, helping to limit Cleveland State (17-4, 8-3) to a .138 hitting clip. Megan Barhorst had 12 kills to lead the Vikings.

The win puts Milwaukee on level with Butler atop the league standings with three weeks to play.

"It was a great match all around," UWM head coach Susie Johnson said. "We played really well tonight to win, and we had to. It was a tough first set and we had to really make sure that we took care of the ball and made good decisions after 20 points, which is what we completely did in (sets) two, three and four."

The Panthers stepped up their play after the first set, when Cleveland State hit .308 and UWM had just two blocks. Milwaukee tallied 12 blocks over the final three frames and didn't let CSU hit better than .129. Meanwhile, UWM had 41 kills and just 15 errors in the last three sets.

"We knew we had to earn our points," Johnson said. "The reality is, to be able to make changes in matches on the block, on the offense, that was great. There are a lot of little things we did where I felt like we improved during the match."

Rachel Neuberger led UWM's defensive effort up front with seven blocks, while Jena Berg added six to go with 37 assists, nine digs and five kills. Morgan Potter led the back row with 18 digs, while Anna Bartz added 10.

Milwaukee dropped the first set after a fast start. In fact, the Panthers led 8-3, 12-9 and 15-13 before CSU took the lead for good at 18-17 on a UWM error. The Vikings' eventually pushed the lead out to 24-20 and then wrapped things up on a kill by Jackie Dabbelt.

UWM then dug itself out of a hole in the second set. The Panthers trailed 6-3 early and were still down 13-11 after an ace by Barhorst. But, UWM scored seven of the next nine points to claim an 18-15 advantage, then scored the final five points to break a 20-all tie. The last burst included two kills from O'Brien, single kills from Schmitting and Schuh and a block by Schmitting and O'Brien.

The Panthers used another late surge to win a tight third set. Milwaukee led 15-11 midway through the frame but Cleveland State rallied to tie things five times. The final deadlock was at 21-all before UWM broke free of that with the final four points. Two kills by Schmitting sandwiched around a pair of CSU errors put the Panthers ahead for the first time in the match.

Milwaukee finished things off in the fourth set. UWM went down 9-6 but used an 11-3 burst to claim a 17-12 advantage. The lead grew to 20-14 on an ace by Schuh and UWM seemed to have things in hand. Cleveland State put together a rally, closing to within 21-20 on a kill by Kerry Winchester. Milwaukee regained control, though, as a CSU error pushed the lead back to two before a spectacular dig by Samantha Trawitzke led to a kill by Berg and a 23-20 Panther lead. UWM got its 24th point on a CSU service error and then finished things out on the Egerer kill.

The Panthers play the final match of a seven-match homestand Tuesday, welcoming DePaul to the Klotsche Center for a 7 p.m. contest.