MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Milwaukee volleyball team wasted no time settling in on their home court as they downed Southeast Missouri State on Friday afternoon. The Panthers swept the Redhawks 3-0 to move to 6-1, their best record to start a season since 2007.
 
The offense was clicking from the start as Milwaukee totaled 19 kills while hitting .421 in the first frame. Carmen Heilemann and Kylie Wilks pushed the Panthers to an 8-3 advantage and the team never looked back.
 
"I am really proud of the team because I've been really on them this whole week about urgency," head coach Susie Johnson commented. "We have not really come out strong the last two weeks. The truth is that coming out strong in the front end of it puts a lot of pressure on the opponent."
 
Later, up 16-13, Milwaukee received five kills from four different players as they scored seven of eight points to up their lead to 23-14. SEMO found a little rhythm late but kills from Kleja Cerniauskaite and Jenna Miller put Milwaukee on top 1-0 with a 25-19 win.
 
In the second set, the Redhawks and Panthers battled back and forth before Ari Miller helped put Milwaukee in the driver's seat. The freshman tallied four kills to ignite an 11-2 run that put MKE up 21-13.
 
SEMO never could recover from the deficit as J. Miller and Cerniauskaite slammed down kills for a 25-17 win in the second. The offense shined once again, hitting .326 with 18 kills in the set.
 
"Staying organized. Staying in our game plan and sticking with it," coach Johnson said about the consistency of the first two sets. "Nobody got too worked up. Everyone knew they had to continue to do their job. Then we started to break way."
 
Milwaukee carried the momentum into the third set as they rolled out to a 14-7 lead to start. The Panther settled in a little too easy as SEMO started to battle back thanks to some errors from MKE. After limiting their mistakes to three in each of the first two sets, the Panthers totaled 11 errors in the third.
 
SEMO pulled it within three at 21-18, but Cerniauskaite put away three straight kills for the Panthers to force a set point at 24-20. Two straight Panthers errors gave hope to the Redhawks, but Cerniauskaite came through again with a final blow to help Milwaukee earn the sweep.
 
A. Miller and Cerniauskaite led the Panthers with 13 and 12 kills, respectively, while Louise Koekhofer, Heilemann, and Wilks each chipped in seven. J. Miller put away a season-high six of her 16 swings for MKE.
 
Jess Grabowski led the back line as she totaled 22 digs while Mati Jakscht nearly hit double digits with nine. Wilks totaled five digs for the Panthers to put her over 1,000 for her career.
 
"Kylie has worked really hard on her defense and it is showing now," stated Johnson. "She is irreplaceable and I'm happy we have months left with her. She is a tremendous leader for us and comes out with so much hard work every time she plays and practices."
 
Rylie Vaughn and Jenn Dore facilitated the efficient offense, combining for 37 assists and nine digs.
 
Johnson finished, "I'm proud of this team. We have a lot of youth and we are learning to get out of this in three, that's a good team. They have a good defense. It was a good win."
 
Following a match between SEMO and Western Michigan, Milwaukee will face Butler at 7:30 pm. Matt Menzl will be on the broadcast on ESPN+ while live stats are available on MKEPanthers.com as well.