DAYTON, Ohio - Senior Julie Kolinske had 17 kills and junior Nicole Latzig added 13 to lead the offense and senior Taylor Golabowski paced the defense with 20 digs to help the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee volleyball team record a 3-0 sweep of Wright State University Saturday afternoon at C.J. McLin Gymnasium.
 
"It was a really good bounce-back from last night," Milwaukee head coach Susie Johnson said. "That was a hard loss to play five sets in such an important match. I was proud of the way the team turned around for today and came very focused to play. Now we will get ready for that conference tournament."
 
The Panthers (16-13, 10-4 Horizon League) fended off a Raiders (5-23, 2-12 Horizon League) squad that wouldn't go away quietly, taking the 25-21, 28-26, 25-20 decision.
 
"Wright State played really well," Johnson said. "Our team was pretty efficient for the most part. Julie had a great match and Taylor dug a lot of balls. Nicole was able to turn it on offensively today, so her teaming with Julie was really helpful to the success of the team."
 
The Panthers led from start to finish in the first set, hitting .318 with just four errors to go with their 18 kills. UWM built a lead to as many as eight on a few occasions and still led, 20-12, on a service ace by Kaisa Mattson. WSU rallied and made it close, drawing within one at 22-21 before Kolinske took over. Three consecutive kills by Kolinske ended it at 25-21.
 
The second set was much more closely-contested and saw 14 ties and six lead changes overall. The Panthers faced a set point at 25-24 but were helped out by an attack error only to see the set tied again at 26-26. Kills by Mattson and Latzig gave UWM the 2-0 advantage on the day.
 
The third was a little less dramatic, but did feature nine ties and three lead changes before Milwaukee took its final edge at 19-18 on an ace by sophomore Myanna Ruiz and closed it out from there.
 
The Horizon League Tournament begins next week at Oakland University. As the No. 2 seed, the Panthers will have a first-round bye and not begin play until Saturday.
 
The full tournament bracket with games, times and other information will be posted to the Milwaukee Athletic website later this evening.