MILWAUKEE - Oakland University set season highs in hitting percentage and blocks to key a 3-1 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee volleyball team Saturday at the Klotsche Center.
 
The Panthers (11-10, 5-2 Horizon League) claimed a win in set one before the Golden Grizzlies (13-9, 5-3 Horizon League) would turn it on, hitting .500 in the second set and .467 in the third en route to a 23-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-18 victory.
 
"They came to play," UWM head coach Susie Johnson said. "When you are the team to beat, it is very hard to win and play hard every single time. Our team has to learn a lesson. They (Oakland) came loose, they came to play, they served awesome, they had a great attack and we didn't counter-attack. It's very hard and challenging, so we will be back to work on Monday."
 
The loss snaps Milwaukee's home winning streak dating back to last season at 11 matches and creates a logjam at the top of the league standings. UWM and Oakland are joined by Youngstown State at 5-2, while Valparaiso and UIC sit one game back at 4-3 after each team has played all opponents one time through the first portion of the league slate.
 
The Panthers had a balanced offensive attack, led by 14 kills from both senior Julie Kolinske and sophomore Myanna Ruiz. Junior Nicole Latzig added 11 kills on a near career-best .588 hitting percentage to go with four blocks and senior Hannah Blanchard gave the team four in double-figures with 10 kills of her own.
 
"[We had a] decent amount of kills, but too many errors," Johnson said. "We have to continue to work on that this week. We had a rough time with too many errors in all three of our matches this week, thankfully we got out of it with two wins."
 
Junior Kayla Price had a season-best 55 assists. Ruiz added a double-double with a team-high 16 digs while senior Taylor Golabowski added 14.
 
Oakland had four in double-figures in kills, led by strong performances by Jessica Dood (14 kills, .407 hitting %, 5 blocks), Sammy Condon (14 kills, .450 %, 8 blocks), Melissa Deatsch (11 kills) and Cassie Pelloni (10 kills, .346 %, 4 blocks). Setter Ciara Schultz chipped in with 53 assists, six kills on a .545 hitting percentage and five assisted blocks.
 
The Golden Grizzlies set season-bests with its team hitting percentage of .376 and 15.5 total blocks, as well as with 59 assists, regardless of set count.
 
The opener set the tone for the night and UWM knew it would be in for a fight. It saw 11 ties and four lead changes, with the Panthers trailing, 20-18, late. Kills by Blanchard and Kolinske tied it at 20-20 and, after an OU point, it was Blanchard and Kolinske again to make it 22-21 and force a timeout.
 
Tied again at 22-all, a huge Latzig spike broke the deadlock. She was big on the next point as well, combining with Kolinske for a block to make it 24-22. Following one more Oakland point, a Kolinske kill ended it.
 
Set two was back and forth early and was still tied at 9-9 before Oakland gained momentum. Four straight points and a run of five out of six made it 14-10, but Milwaukee would battle back. A Latzig kill trimmed the deficit to one at 15-14, but that was as close as it would get as OU maintained at least a two-point lead the rest of the way.
 
After hitting .500 in set two, the Grizzlies were just as good in the third, tallying a .467 clip while making just one error.
 
The fourth was tight as well until the Oakland block took over. The team had 7.5 blocks in the deciding set alone, sending it to the 25-18 victory.
 
It will be a weekend road trip next for the Panthers, playing important matches at Valparaiso Friday and UIC Saturday. Friday starts at 7 p.m. against the Crusaders.