DES MOINES, Iowa – Following their first setback of the year, the Milwaukee volleyball team bounced back in a complete team effort. The Panthers received kills from nine different players as they topped Saint Louis 3-1 on Friday afternoon.
 
"We performed much better than the first match and found our rhythm," head coach Susie Johnson stated. "We lot of really important hustle plays where we worked to get certain points. A lot of people that were important to that win."
 
Milwaukee could not have asked for a better start to the match as they rolled out to a 9-3 advantage in the first behind two kills from Ari Miller and a pair of aces from Jess Grabowski. Saint Louis cut the deficit to five but three consecutive kills from different Panthers pushed the MKE lead to 17-9.
 
The Billikens threatened back as they used six-point and four-point runs to grab a late lead at 24-23. Milwaukee would not break, however, as Carmen Heilemann and Kleja Cerniauskaite put away kills around a SLU error and grabbed a 26-24 set one victory.
 
Errors became an issue for Milwaukee in the second as they found themselves in a five-point deficit at 16-11 after a 5-0 Billikens run. The Panthers struggled to land kills as they hit just .098 with seven errors in the frame.
 
Jenna Miller and Shari Volpis came on late to record a kill each, but SLU doubled up everything Milwaukee had as they tied the match 1-1 with a 25-16 win in the second.
 
Saint Louis rode the hot hand of Maya Taylor all night, especially in the third frame as she put away four consecutive kills for a 4-1 early lead. Despite the attacks, Milwaukee found some rhythm behind the efficient passing of Rylie Vaughn and Jenn Dore, who dished up six and eight assists, respectively.
 
Down 19-15, Volpis notched a pair of kills around a Heilemann slam and Milwaukee was down just a point. SLU earned a kill after a timeout, but the Panthers scored four of the next five to pull ahead 22-21.
 
The Billikens tied it out of a timeout yet again, but Heilemann and Cerniauskaite landed attacks and then Miller and Cerniauskaite stuffed SLU's Taylor for a 25-22 win.
 
After bouncing back and forth in the fourth set, a pair of Kylie Wilks kills led a 6-0 Milwaukee run for a 12-7 lead. From there, the Panthers did not let Saint Louis gain any ground, answering every point the Billikens had.
 
SLU landed a kill to make it 21-17, but Milwaukee cashed in on four of the next five rallies, ending with kills from Miller and Cerniauskaite to seal the win.

"The difference between the first and second match today was the rhythm and determination," Johnson continued. "We just had the ability to execute. Our goal is to put the girls in a position to be competitive and consistently compete at a high level and tonight they did that."
 
Three reached double-digit kill totals for the Panthers, led by 12 from Miller, who matched a career-high. Wilks and Heilemann joined in double digits with 11 apiece.
 
Dore contributed all over the floor, dishing out 22 assists to go along with six digs and two kills. Dore has now reached at least 20 assists in every match this season. Vaughn also reached the 20-assist plateau, totaling 21 to go along with 15 digs.
 
The Panthers will wrap up the Drake Invitational on Saturday morning at 11:00 am against the host school, Drake University. Live stats for the morning match can be found on MKEPanthers.com.