DAYTON, Ohio – The Milwaukee volleyball team won the first set on Friday night, but Wright State averaged 18 kills and hit .356 over the next three frames to hand the Panthers their second straight defeat.
 
"That was a really tough match," head coach Susie Johnson commented. "They played like a seasoned team and made it really tough for us offensively. We were doing well defensively but they made good adjustments the rest of the way."
 
Milwaukee (18-8, 12-2 Horizon League) took the early lead on Friday night, topping Wright State 25-19 in the first frame as the Raiders piled up nine attack errors. Madi Malone led the Panthers with six kills and six digs.
 
The Panthers amped up the offense in the second, hitting .375 with 17 kills but Wright State (17-7, 9-3 Horizon League) matched MKE point-for-point and totaled 19 kills on .421 hitting to even the match at one with a 25-21 victory.
 
Wright State once again totaled 19 kills the following frame and held Milwaukee to just nine on .161 hitting to flip the script and pull in front 2-1 with a 25-20 set-three win.
 
In the fourth, the teams battled early but Wright used a 7-2 run to take control at 18-12. From there, Milwaukee could not regain ground and the Panthers fell 25-18.
 
Malone put together a solid performance with a team-high 18 kills to go with 10 digs.
 
Also reaching double figures was Carmen Heilemann with 16 kills, capitalizing at a .406 clip.
 
Senior libero Jess Grabowski led the defense with 22 digs. In addition to Malone, Rylie Vaughn also reached double digit digs with 12 to go with a team-high 44 assists.
 
The Panthers return home for a pair of contests on November 4 and 7 before closing the regular season on the road on November 11-13.  
 
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