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Women's Volleyball

Volleyball Set For Early Action At Western Michigan

MKE heads to weekend tournament, starting with two matches Friday

MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee volleyball team continues its month-long road trip this weekend, heading to Kalamazoo, Mich. for three matches in two days, starting Friday. The Panthers will go up against host Western Michigan early Friday before an afternoon contest against Canisius. MKE wraps things up Saturday against Utah State.
 
• Scouting Notebook
Western Michigan is off to a 5-2 start on the season, including a 3-1 win over fellow Horizon-League institution IUPUI last weekend en route to a three-match sweep of the Jaguar's home tournament in Indianapolis. The Bronco's offense has been picking up as the season continues, but they have been very strong defensively in the early going. Junior libero Kathleen Reilly leads the team with an average of over five digs/set, including racking up 36 in WMU's five-set win over Northern Arizona last weekend.
 
Canisius will head into its match with Milwaukee with a 1-5 record. The Griffins also played in a tournament hosted by a fellow Horizon League school, going 1-2 at Cleveland State's season opening tournament, falling to the Vikings, 3-0, in the finale. Nine returning letterwinners and six freshmen make up this year's Canisius squad, led by Preseason All-MAAC honoree Sara Wesley.
 
Utah State dropped a close 3-0 decision to in-state foe Utah Valley on Tuesday to fall to 1-6 on the season. The Aggies will square off against Loyola-Chicago on Friday before starting Saturday against Milwaukee. Despite their record, USU did take Pac-12 power Arizona to five sets before coming up just short. Offensively, four different players average between two and three kills/set for the Aggies thus far this season in a balanced attack.
 
• Series History
Milwaukee has gone up against the host Broncos a total of 10 times in program history, coming out on top three times - including the most recent matchup at Western Michigan's home tournament in 2016. Milwaukee's showdown with both Canisius and Utah State will mark just the second meeting against each school in program history. The Panthers took down the Griffins, 3-1, back in 1993. One year prior, MKE fell to USU at a tournament hosted by Washington State.
 
• 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.
 
• Block Party
Just two 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 seven 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
The Panthers continue their month-long road swing next week, heading to their final non-conference tournament, with this one hosted by Bradley. Milwaukee will square off against Omaha and Eastern Illinois on Friday before taking on the host Braves 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