Women's Volleyball October 02, 2018

Volleyball Starts Busy Week Wednesday At IUPUI

Team returns home to host Cleveland State Sunday

MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee volleyball team hits the road for a mid-week match this week before returning home for a Sunday matinee against the league leaders. It all starts Wednesday as the Panthers head down to Indianapolis to take on IUPUI for a 5 pm Central contest from The Jungle. Then, MKE comes home to take on the defending-champion Cleveland State Vikings in a 2 pm match Sunday from the Klotsche Center.

• Scouting Notebook
IUPUI has had an up and down start to the conference season. After dropping their first two matches of Horizon-League play at home against UIC and Green Bay, the Jaguars bounced back with road wins this past weekend at Oakland and Youngstown State. IUPUI went just 3-11 in non-conference play and were picked to finish fifth in conference play after going 12-4 in their first season in the Horizon League last year. Since the start of conference play this year, the Jags are second in the standings in opponent hitting percentage (.148) and third in blocks (2.29/set).

Winners of the last three Horizon League championships, Cleveland State is once again off to a strong start in conference play. The Vikings went 6-6 in non-conference but are already 4-0 against the Horizon League and they will host IUPUI Friday before coming to Milwaukee. Statistically, the Vikings rank at or near the top of the leader board in nearly every category. Individually, sophomore Hannah Greene leads the conference in blocks at nearly 1.5/set.

• Series History
The Panthers hold a 4-2 lead in the all-time series with the Jaguars, with the first match dating back to 1986. Both IUPUI wins came last season. Meanwhile, MKE and CSU have a longstanding history, squaring off at least once a year since 1992. Milwaukee carries a 43-17 edge into Sunday's match and will look to snap the Vikings seven-match win streak.

• Finally Home
After spending a full month on the road during the non-conference schedule, Milwaukee finally returns home Sunday with the start of a five-match homestand. With last weekend's brief home stint, the Panthers will only have to hit the road once over a four-week span (Wednesday's match at IUPUI). The Klotsche Center has historically been very friendly to the Panthers, tallying an impressive 228 wins on that court since 1990.

• Grabbing League Honors
Freshman Jess Grabowski was named the Horizon League's Defensive Player of the Week Sept. 17 after an awfully impressive showing at Bradley's home tournament. The first-year libero turned in her most complete weekend performance to date, averaging over seven digs per set in the three-match tournament, including racking up 28 in a three-setter against the host Braves.

• Youth Movement
Susie Johnson once again has quite a young squad to work with this season. Nine of Milwaukee's 17 players are either freshmen or sophomores. Combine that with the fact that three of the Panthers upperclassmen are new to the team this year and MKE will look quite a bit different at the start of 2018 than they did at the end of last season.

Not only does Milwaukee have a large number of young players on this year's roster, but they are seeing the majority of minutes so far. Five freshmen were in the starting lineup for the first serve of the season, something that has largely remained unchanged through the first 15 matches of the year.

• Kiekhofer Killin' It
Junior Louise Kiekhofer had an outstanding start to the Horizon League slate. In the conference opener, the outside hitter racked up 27 kills while hitting .479 - both career highs. In fact, her previous career high for kills was 14 - nearly doubling that total in the win over Wright State. The 27 kills are also the most in the Horizon League in a four-set match this season and rank 11th in the entire NCAA.

• I'll Take Milwaukee For 500
Milwaukee has a very rich volleyball history with 13 league titles and 10 NCAA Tournament appearances. Now in its 29th season at the Division I level, the Panthers are on the verge of notching win No. 500 in program history. MKE enters the week with 493 total wins.

• Catch All The Action
Milwaukee volleyball will once again be readily available for the viewing pleasure of MKE fans this season, with nine home games streamed live on ESPN+. The Horizon League and ESPN have an agreement that includes ESPN hosting the league's digital network on the ESPN+ platform.

ESPN+, which will host the Horizon League women's soccer, men's soccer and volleyball championships this fall, offers fans thousands of live events, on-demand content and original programming not available on ESPN's linear TV or digital networks. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $4.99 a month (or $49.99 per year) and cancel at any time. Launched in April of 2018, ESPN+ is an integrated part of a completely redesigned ESPN App.

• Up Next
Milwaukee continues its five-match homestand next weekend, welcoming Youngstown State to campus Friday at 6 pm before Oakland comes to the Klotsche Center for a Saturday matinee.

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Players Mentioned

#3 Louise Kiekhofer: OH; 5' 9"; Junior

#12 Jess Grabowski: DS; 5' 4"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#3 Louise Kiekhofer
: 5' 9"; Junior
: OH

#12 Jess Grabowski
: 5' 4"; Freshman
: DS

Players Mentioned

#3 Louise Kiekhofer

#12 Jess Grabowski

Players Mentioned

#3 Louise Kiekhofer

#12 Jess Grabowski