MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee has reached a pivotal point in the 2023 season with the final road trip of the year as the team visits all three teams it's battling for the top spot in the Horizon League standings beginning with in-state foe Green Bay on Tuesday. The team's trip will continue to Ohio for a bout against Wright State on Friday before the weekend concludes on Saturday at Northern Kentucky.

Milwaukee will be looking to salvage a season split with the Phoenix at the Kress Center on Tuesday and will look to go 2-0 against the Raiders and Norse after winning earlier this season at home inside the Klotsche Center. Milwaukee enters the week a half-game ahead of Wright State, one and one-half games in front of Northern Kentucky, and two games ahead of Green Bay in the Horizon League standings entering play this week.
  
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Tuesday, October 31 – Milwaukee at Green Bay | Kress Center | Green Bay, Wis. | 6:00 pm
Friday, November 3 – Milwaukee at Wright State | CJ McLin Gymnasium | Dayton, Ohio | 5:00 pm
Saturday, November 4 – Milwaukee at Northern Kentucky | Regents Hall | Highland Heights, Ky. | 2:00 pm
 
QUICK LINKS
Live Stats (All Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage
ESPN+ (Green Bay/Northern Kentucky Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Follow Along (On X): @MKE_Volleyball
Tickets (Green Bay): Green Bay Tickets
Tickets (Northern Kentucky): Northern Kentucky Tickets

FAST FACTS
» Milwaukee will finish up the road portion of its 2023 schedule with three games this week beginning with Green Bay on Tuesday followed by Wright State and Northern Kentucky this weekend. The Panthers are on a four-match winning streak and have swept five of six conference weekends thus far.
» MKE is looking to avenge its loss from earlier in the season against Green Bay and will look for the season series sweeps against both WSU and NKU.
» The Panthers are 50-24 in all-time meetings with the Phoenix including a 21-10 mark in Green Bay. Milwaukee is 45-21 against the Raiders (19-12 in Dayton, Ohio), and are 8-10 in meetings against the Norse (1-8 in Highland Heights, Ky.).
» Entering play this week, Ari Miller has 1,494 career kills and is six shy from becoming the third player in program history with 1,500 kills.
» The Panthers are led by head coach Susie Johnson, who is in her 17th season as head coach and 27th overall with the program. Johnson became the program's all-time head coaching wins leader with her 272nd on September 19; later in the week she earned her 500th career win on the Panther sideline, which includes her time as both a head coach and an assistant coach. She earned her 300th career head coaching win on October 20, which includes her two seasons at Parkside.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION – GREEN BAY
Green Bay heads into play this week with an 11-14 record, which includes a 9-4 mark in the Horizon League. Earlier this year, the Phoenix handed Milwaukee its first conference loss of the season with a four-set win at the Klotsche Center.

Tiffany Paalman had 15 kills against the Panthers on October 3, while Hannah Vanden Berg was second with 14 followed by Emma Best with 10. Emma Johnson had 43 assists, 10 shy of her season-best 53, while Vanden Berg led the Phoenix with three aces as she continues to lead the Horizon League. Defensively, the Phoenix saw Ellie Kurpeikis had eight blocks in the match, while Abby Gardner led Green Bay with 17 digs.

Vanden Berg is tops on the team with 305 points, 45 aces and is third with 45 blocks for a team-best 375.5 points, while Johnson leads the team with 612 assists and is averaging better than nine per set. Kurpeikis and Paalman lead the team with 75 blocks apiece, while Gardner has 325 digs, followed by Best with 272 and Vanden Berg with 240.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION – WRIGHT STATE
League-favorite Wright State currently sits a half-game behind Milwaukee entering play this week with an 11-3 record in Horizon League matches while the Raiders are 15-10 overall. In their initial meeting at the Klotsche Center on October 7, the Raiders dropped a 3-1 decision to the Panthers after the two sides split the first two sets.

Callie Martin put together a strong showing against the Panthers with 20 kills, while Megan Alders was second with a dozen. Katie Meyer continued her season with a 43-assist performance, six shy of her season-best 49 at Oakland. Jenny Wessling had 21 digs to lead the way defensively for Wright State, while Sam Ott had 16 digs and led the team with three blocks.

Alders leads WSU with a team-best 291 kills, followed by Callie Martin with 271 as Martin leads the team with 334.5 points as Martin is one of three Raiders with at least 70 blocks this season. Aaliyah Byers is tops on the team with 87 blocks, while Reilly Zegunis is second with 80. Wessling holds the team lead with more than double her closest teammate with her 506 this season. Andrea Bortulin has been one of the top servers in the Horizon League with 38 this season.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION – NORTHERN KENTUCKY
With a 15-10 record and a 10-4 mark in the Horizon League, the Norse are looking to bounce back from a 3-1 loss at Milwaukee on October 6. NKU took the opening set from the Panthers before MKE took the following three at the Klotsche Center.

Joy Banks had a match-high 15 kills, while Abby Kanakry had 12 in the team's loss to the Panthers, while the team's two setter formation saw Torie Houston corral 21 assists and Katy Yopko tally 17. Banks also led the team with four service aces, while she recorded a double-double with 12 digs. Anna Burke had the most digs for the Norse on the night with 23, while Allie Siefke had seven blocks, followed closely by Kanakry and Skyy Smith with five blocks each.

Kanakry and Banks each have more than 300 kills on the season, while the pair both have more than 350 total points to lead the way for Northern Kentucky. Houston's 39 aces lead the Norse, while Burke is three off the pace with 36. Houston also leads the team in assists with 549, while Yopko has added 456. Burke has a team-best 477 digs, while Smith has been a force up front and is among the conference leaders with 105 blocks.

IN THE NATION
Out of 332 Division I programs, Milwaukee is currently second in the nation with 1,354 kills, second in the country with 1,260 assists, and seventh in the country with 240 blocks on the season.  Milwaukee also holds a spot in the top-15 with 3,521 total attacking attempts heading into this week's action.

Individually, Ari Miller is 30th in the nation with 402 points, while Madi Malone is 46th in the same category with 382.5 points. Miller is also top-15 in the nation with 115 blocks, while she is 48th in the country with a .373 hitting percentage.

Madi Malone is 28th in Division I with 343 kills this season, while she is also 33rd in total attacking attempts with 945. Malone, like Miller, is also in the top-50 in total points with 382.5 on the season thus far.

MILLER'S TOP-10 ASCENT
With 289 kills this season, Ari Miller now has 1,494 for her career with Milwaukee, that total now places her third on the all-time Division I kills list in program history. Next on the list is Laura Dallenbach in second place all-time as Dallenbach finished her career with 1,534 career kills.

In addition to her kills mark, Miller now has a career-best 115 blocks in her final collegiate season to give her 431 career blocks. She is currently in third on the all-time blocks list and 43 more to reach the top-two on the all-time blocks list. Miller also into first all-time on Friday in both career matches with 129, and career sets played with 477.

HORIZON LEAGUE HONORS
Milwaukee has had a league-leading six selections for Horizon League Player of the Week as Madi Malone earned her third selection this Monday. In addition to Malone's three selections, Ari Miller has earned the weekly nod from the conference on three occasions in the month of September.

Malone and Miller are two of just three Horizon League student-athletes to earn multiple Player of the Week nods this season. Panna Ratkai of Purdue Fort Wayne has four selections, while PFW has had five selections as a team.

PICKING UP THE PACE IN HORIZON LEAGUE PLAY
In 13 conference matches this season, Madi Malone has stepped it up with a team-best 185 kills, good enough for 3.78 kills per set and is hitting .296 on the year with a team-best 469 attacking attempts. Malone is second on the team with 17 service aces and is third on the team with 119 digs during that span.

In 27 matches overall on the season, Malone has 3.27 kills per set with a team-best 343 kills on a team-high 945 attempts. Malone only had two service aces in non-conference play, finishing non-league play with 131 digs.

MILLENIUM CLUB
It was a historic night for a pair of Panther in the October 27 match against Youngstown State as Madi Malone reached 1,000 career kills, while Josie Johnson reached 1,000 career assists.

Malone joins Ari Miller as the two Panthers with more than 1,000 career kills, while Johnson joins Kaley Blake as the two Panthers with over 1,000 career assists.

BLOCK PARTY
Following 179 blocks in 2019, the Panthers have increased their team's total block total every season, with 180 in 2021, and 211 in 2022. Through 25 matches Milwaukee has 240 blocks and are on a strong pace to continue their upward trend in 2023.

The Panthers are tops in the Horizon League with their team block total at 240 and are also second in the league in solo blocks with 54 thus far. Ari Miller is third in the league with 17 solo blocks, while Lakyn Graves is fifth with 15 on the season. Czhen Beneby is also in the top-10 with 11 solo blocks.

With 115 total blocks on the season individually, Ari Miller is currently 14th in all of NCAA Division I and is just 23 blocks off the national lead.

DOUBLE-QUARTER
Twice this season setters Kaley Blake and Josie Johnson have recorded at least 25 assists each in the span of one contest. Against Villanova early in the season, Johnson and 30 and Blake had 26 in the five-setter against the Wildcats. Against Air Force on September 15, Johnson had 29 and Blake registered 25. The duo has now accomplished the feat on three occasions in their career, with their first instance coming on October 18 of the 2022 season, when Johnson had 26 and Blake had 29 against IUPUI.

The last time two setters had more than 30 assists in a single match came back on August 29, 2021, when Blake had 32 assists and former teammate Rylie Vaughn had 31 in the team's five-set match against Valparaiso at the Klotsche Center.

CAN YOU DIG IT?
In her final season with the team, Sarah Schrader has played a vital role in the team's defensive efforts in the back row this year with a team-best 316 digs, which is already the second highest dig total for her career. In 2022, Schrader had a career-best 324 digs and is well ahead of that pace as she is averaging 3.85 digs per set compared to last year's 3.31 dig per set as a junior.

With her 36 digs against Western Illinois on September 8, Schrader moved into a third-place tie on the single-match digs list in five-set matches, equaling the mark of Myanna Ruiz in September of 2015. The single match-record for the Panthers is 41 digs set by Becky Peters in 2005, while Lauren Felsing is the only other player to reach 40 digs in a match as she did so in 2009 with 40 digs in a four-set match.

NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP HERE
Following strong freshman campaigns in 2022 Natalie Schmitz and Josie Johnson both reached new career-high marks at their respective positions during the opening trio of matches in Michigan.

Schmitz has secured a career-best 17 kills in three matches this season, including the team's matches against Villanova, Montana State, and Northwestern. Johnson also reached a career-high mark in the match against the Bobcats of Montana State with 31 assists.

COACHING MILESTONES
Milwaukee head coach Susie Johnson earned her 272nd head coaching victory at Milwaukee to become the program's all-time leader in wins as a Division I program (since 1990). Johnson earned the win with a five-set victory over the Chicago State Cougars on Tuesday evening and is now the department's leader in wins for any women's sport at Milwaukee.

In addition to her head coaching wins total with the Panthers, Johnson also recorded her 500th career win with the Panthers program on Saturday against Purdue Fort Wayne. Johnson has 274 wins as head coach, coupled with 226 wins during her 10 seasons as an assistant coach with the program.

On October 20, Johnson earned her 300th career victory, which includes her 280 at Milwaukee and 20 during her first two collegiate seasons as a head coach at Parkside.

1,000 DIVISION I MATCHES
Earlier this season, the Milwaukee volleyball program played its 1,000th Division I match in its 34th season of competition. The Panthers won the match in five sets over Western Illinois at the SIUE Cougar Classic. The program's first-ever match took place on August 31, 1990, against Wright State in Macomb, Illinois at a tournament hosted by Western Illinois.

LOOKING AHEAD
After this weekend, Milwaukee returns home to wrap up the regular season, the Panthers will welcome in Cleveland State on November 10 before the season ends against Oakland on November 11 as the Panthers will recognize their four seniors competing in their final home regular season match of their respective careers.