MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee volleyball team improved to 18-8 on the season and 10-2 in Horizon League matches on Friday evening as the Panthers upended the Youngstown State Penguins in five sets at the Klotsche Center.
 
Milwaukee won the opener 25-14, before YSU took a 2-1 lead with a 25-20 second set followed by a 25-18 third set win. The Panthers answered back with a 25-15 win in the fourth set, before a 15-7 fifth set that saw Milwaukee score the final eight points of the match.
 
"This conference just continues to show that there's so much parody and competitive teams throughout the league," said head coach Susie Johnson. "I knew this was going to be a competitive match, and I was really proud of the way we responded in the fourth set and carried that over late into the fifth set."
 
With the win, Milwaukee improves to 5-1 this season in five-set matches, which includes two in conference play. The program record for five-set wins in a season is eight set back in 1998.
 
On the night, Madi Malone set a new career milestone as she crossed over the 1,000-kill mark for her career, while Josie Johnson also picked up her 1,000th career assist during the match.
 
Ari Miller also had a pair of career marks, as she broke the career matches played and the career sets played record and has now appeared in 128 matches and 474 sets for her career.
 
"Madi getting 1,000 kills in her junior year is quite something and I'm happy for her…1,000 assists as a sophomore is also a great mark for Josie," Johnson added. "I'm not surprised with Ari breaking those records, she works so hard all year long to prepare for the seasons and works at such a pace that really helps our team."
 
The Panthers as a team combined for a season-best 13 aces, just two shy of tying the program record of 15 aces in a five-set match set back on November 10, 1990, against Valparaiso.
 
"Service pressure was really important in our game plan tonight, and it was something we really worked on," Johnson added. "This was the first time that our service game translated onto the court, and we able to execute well in the match."
 
Miller led the team on the night with 19 kills as she hit .419, while Malone was second on the match with 15. Lakyn Graves and Natalie Schmitz each added six kills, with Bri Geurts came on strong late in the match and picked up five kills.
 
Johnson led the Panthers with 26 assists, while Kaley Blake tallied 19 in the effort. Kati Goba had a season-best six assists to help the offense while also recording her first career kill.
 
Defensively, the Panthers had four players reach double figures in digs with Sarah Schrader leading the way at 14. Goba tallied a season-best 13, while Malone added a dozen and Blake picked up 10 in the win.
 
MKE had six team blocks, led by Graves with four assisted blocks and Malone picking up three. Geurts and Miller each had two, while Bella Lipski had one block to go along with her four kills on the night.
 
Milwaukee was tied at five in the opening set before a kill by Graves gave the Panthers service, which Schrader took advantage of with an ace on the next serve en route to a five-point Milwaukee run as the Panthers led 10-5.
 
The Panthers used a trio of three-point runs in the middle stages of the opening set to take a 19-9 lead before the team held a nine-point lead at 23-14. Grave picked up another kill off a Blake pass, before an error by the Penguins sealed the first set win for MKE at 25-14.
 
The second set saw Milwaukee jump out to a quick 6-2 lead, but YSU responded and took a two-point advantage at 9-7. The Panther offense was stuck in neutral as the Penguins continued to pull away and led 16-9, but a lengthy service run by Johnson trimmed the deficit to one at 16-15.
 
MKE was within one at 21-20 but the Penguins were able to overcome the late Panther surge and score the next four points to take the second set and even the match.
 
The Panthers trailed by a 12-8 difference in the third set, as it was ultimately the Penguins to take the third by a 25-18 score.
 
In the fourth, Milwaukee scored eight of the first 11 points of the set to take a five-point lead capped off by back-to-back service aces from Malone. With the Panthers ahead by three at 11-8, a five-point run by MKE gave the home team an eight-point cushion before winning the set by 10 points at 25-15, finished off by a kill by Schmitz.
 
The first 14 points in the fifth and final set were split evenly at seven, but Milwaukee had built up steam after initially trailing by a 3-1 score to open the set. The Panthers were the first two eight as the two sides switched sides.
 
With the Panthers winning back service, it was Schrader to do the rest as Milwaukee did not relinquish serve to the Penguins closing out the match on an eight-point run including two kills by both Geurts and Malone, two aces by Schrader, while match point was won on a block by Graves and Malone.
 
Milwaukee played in front of its largest home crowd of the season with a recorded 913 in attendance on the night, it was the largest home crowd for a Panther game since August 29, 2015, when the Panthers played in front of 928 fans against Missouri State.
 
Milwaukee will host Robert Morris tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. inside the Klotsche Center. Fans are encouraged to bring new or gently used shoes for Jacarrie Kicks For Kids, as the Panthers celebrate Milwaukee Appreciation Day!