Women's Volleyball October 24, 2018

Volleyball Looks To Continue Win Streak On The Road

Panthers start weekend away at Oakland

MILWAUKEE – Winners of four in a row, the Milwaukee volleyball team returns to the road this weekend for the first time in three weeks with two matches away from home, starting Friday. The Panthers will start with a trip to Rochester, Mich., for a rematch of a five-set thriller with Oakland. First serve is scheduled for 5 pm Central from the O'rena. MKE will then make the drive to northeast Ohio to take on Youngstown State at 3 pm Central Saturday.

• Scouting Notebook
Oakland has had a rough go since starting league play. Picked second in the preseason poll with three first-place votes, the Golden Grizzlies sit at 3-7 in the Horizon League just after the turn of the midway point. Two of OU's wins have come in three sets, as have two of their losses. The team just completed a five-match road swing and will play three of their next four at home. Despite their record, junior Jordan Lentz is ranked third in the league in assists, sophomore Jamie Walling is ranked fourth in kills and senior Krysteena Davis is ranked fourth in blocks.

Under the direction of first-year head coach Aline Scott, the Penguins enter the weekend at 1-9 in the Horizon League. They fell just short in a 3-2 contest against Oakland just last week. Youngstown State's match against Milwaukee will be wrapping up a four-match homestand. Junior Aleah Hughes leads YSU in both kills (234) and digs (316) thus far this season.

• Series History
Since Oakland joined the Horizon League in 2013, Milwaukee owns a 7-5 edge, with six of those matches going the full five. Meanwhile, the Panthers and Penguins have a much longer history, with MKE holding a 32-9 edge after the 3-0 win earlier this year.

• A Crisp Hundred
In its win over Northern Kentucky on Oct. 19, Milwaukee reached an impressive defensive milestone by racking up 100 digs to help spur the big win. That is significant as it marked the first time in over six years (a four-set win over Wright State on Oct. 12, 2012) MKE has reached triple digits in digs - the only other time the team has cracked 100 since 2010.

• An Impressive Turn
Despite a rough start to the season, this Milwaukee squad never gave up - something that has shown, especially over the last three weeks. The Panthers have won four straight and five of their last six to improve their record to 7-16 overall but much more importantly 6-4 in the Horizon League. That is significant as that vaults MKE into fourth place going into this weekend, with only the top six teams qualifying for the conference tournament.

• Coming Up In The Clutch
Junior outside Kylie Wilks has had countless memorable moments for the Panthers in her first two-plus years on campus. Oddly enough, despite finishing with her second-lowest kill total to date, Wilks came up clutch in the closing moments of the Oct. 20 win over Wright State. Her second kill of the day erased any doubt of extras and clinched a 3-1 win for MKE.

• Upperclassman Leadership
Milwaukee had a pair of upperclassmen step up big in the fifth set in their win over Oakland last Saturday. Junior Kylie Wilks had six of her team-high 14 kills in the final frame, while senior Shanon Volpis was a perfect 4-for-4 on attacks in the fifth. Volpis ended up finishing with a season-high 13 kills in the big win over the Golden Grizzlies.

• She Can Dig It
Freshman Jess Grabowski is on an impressive start to her collegiate career. With at least six matches still to go, the Greendale native has already racked up an impressive 424 digs - already third-most for a freshman in MKE history. Her 4.87 digs/set would also be a program freshman record and rank her fourth in the entire Horizon League this season. For her efforts, she was named the conference's defensive player of the week on Sept. 17 after averaging an eye-popping 7.1 digs/set in a weekend tournament at Bradley.

• 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 23 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 498 total wins.

• Up Next
Panther fans will have a chance to say thank you to this year's senior class as MKE has its final home match of the year next Friday when IUPUI comes to the Klotsche Center for a 6pm match. From there, Milwaukee will hit the road for a Sunday afternoon contest at Cleveland State.

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Players Mentioned

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

#14 Kylie Wilks: OH; 5' 8"; Junior

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

#18 Shanon Volpis: RS; 6' 2"; Senior

Players Mentioned

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

#14 Kylie Wilks
: 5' 8"; Junior
: OH

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

#18 Shanon Volpis
: 6' 2"; Senior
: RS