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Jenna Miller

Women's Volleyball

Milwaukee Volleyball Set For CEFCU Classic

Panthers close out non-conference play with tournament at Bradley

MILWAUKEE - The non-conference schedule comes to a close this weekend as the Milwaukee volleyball team heads to Peoria, Ill. for the CEFCU Classic starting Friday, hosted by Bradley. The Panthers will continue their busy stretch away from home with a 10:30 am start to the tournament against Omaha on Friday. MKE will also go up against Eastern Illinois Friday at 4:30 pm before a Saturday 2 pm contest against the host Braves.
 
• Scouting Notebook
Omaha heads into Friday's tournament-opening match against Milwaukee with a 4-5 overall record. The Mavericks swept their home tournament two weeks ago, including a 3-1 win over fellow Horizon League foe UIC. The Mavs offense runs through freshman setter Sydney Case, who ranks 15th in the nation with 11.60 assists/set this year. Interestingly, Omaha has not played a five-set match so far this season.
 
Eastern Illinois heads into the weekend sitting at 3-8 overall so far this season. After collecting wins over Saint Francis (PA) and Iona during its season-opening home tournament, the Panthers have notched just one more win along the way. Redshirt junior libero Anne Hughes has been very impressive this season defensively, averaging 5.53 digs/set, which ranks 17th in the nation. EIU will play host Bradley at 12:30 before its 4:30 match against Milwaukee.
 
The host Braves enter their home tournament with a strong 7-2 mark, with their two losses both coming in five-set contests. Head coach Carol Price-Torok has something going in her third season with the Braves after collecting seven and 10 wins in her first two seasons, respectively. BU has been getting it done on the defensive side of the ball this year, ranking 26th in the nation in digs (17.18/set) and 15th in the NCAA in opponent hitting percentage (0.141).
 
• Series History
Milwaukee has a mixed back of results when it comes to previous history with this weekend's three opponents. Friday's opener against Omaha will be the first matchup between the two programs in school history. Meanwhile, the Friday matinee of Panthers versus Panthers will be the ninth meeting at the Division-I level and the 14 all-time meeting with Eastern Illinois. Milwaukee has also played Bradley 10 times previously at the DI level, with BU holding a slight 6-4 lead in the series.
 
• 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 491 total wins.
 
• 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 not changed through the first 10 matches of the year.
 
• Block Party
Just three weeks into the season and Milwaukee has already shown a big improvement at the net on the defensive side of the ball. The Panthers have already turned in three performances with double-digit blocks in the first 10 matches of the year. That is noteworthy as MKE tallied just five such performances all of last season. In fact, Milwaukee's 14 blocks in its four-set match with Big Ten power Northwestern is already one of the top performances in the Horizon League and would have ranked second most for the Panthers last season.
 
• Sophomore Stepping Up
After limited action as a freshman, Makenzie Mroczenski showed what one year in the Panther program can do for development. Going up against Big Ten foe Northwestern, the sophomore middle tallied career highs in kills (12), blocks (five) and digs (six) in just the third match of the 2018 season. Then, less than one week later, Mroczenski racked up 16 kills while hitting a career-best .382 at the net to go with eight blocks against Boise State.
 
• The Big 2-0-0
Milwaukee head coach Susie Johnson reached the 200-win milestone in the early going of last season with her team's 3-0 sweep of Northern Illinois. Now in her 12th year as head coach of the Black and Gold and 14th season serving as head coach in her career, Johnson isn't far from the 200-win plateau with the Panthers, entering the 2018 season with 190 while leading the Black & Gold.
 
• 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 will wrap up its month-long stretch away from home with the start of conference play next weekend. The Panthers open up Horizon League action at Wright State on Friday before taking on Northern Kentucky Saturday afternoon.
 
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Players Mentioned

Makenzie Mroczenski

#2 Makenzie Mroczenski

MB
6' 2"
Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Makenzie Mroczenski

#2 Makenzie Mroczenski

6' 2"
Sophomore
MB