KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Milwaukee volleyball season got underway at University Arena on Friday evening, as the Panthers took on host Western Michigan and dropped a four-set decision to the Broncos.
 
"Western Michigan is a good team", commented head coach Susie Johnson. "They're very seasoned and I felt like they had a great match. I thought we competed at times and had really good moment and our blocking was on point and extremely strong tonight."
 
Milwaukee (0-1) recorded 13 blocks on the defensive side of the ball, making it the most for a Panther squad in a single match since October 13 of the 2019 season in conference play at Oakland.
 
The Panthers struggled on offense and were only able to register 37 kills and have a .128 hitting percentage on the night. Madi Malone and Natalie Schmitz each had 10 kills apiece, while Ari Miller had a .214 hitting percentage.
 
Kaley Blake had 18 assists, with Josie Johnson recording 13 on the night. Miller had both of Milwaukee's aces in the service game.
 
Up front, Czhen Beneby had a team-best five blocks including three solo blocks with Lakyn Graves second on the team with four blocks. A trio of Panthers were credited with three blocks apiece including Malone, Miller and Bri Geurts.
 
Malone had a double-double on the match with 10 digs, while Kara Erdmann in the libero position picked up nine of her own.
 
It was a slow start for the Panthers despite scoring the first point of the match. A pair of five-point rallies for the Broncos sparked the set for WMU as they took the opening set 25-15.
 
Milwaukee bounced back in the second set with a match-high .219 hitting percentage with a match-best 13 kills in the set. The Panthers were up by a 10-9 score before connecting on six of the next seven points to take a 16-10 advantage. Western Michigan clawed their way back within three before Malone secured the set-clinching kill to even the match at one set apiece.
 
The Broncos took an early lead in the third set before it was Milwaukee's turn to fight back to within two at 20-18. Western Michigan closed out the set on a 5-2 run to take the two sets to one lead.
 
Western Michigan burst out to an 11-4 lead in the fourth set, that soon swelled to a 19-8 advantage before taking the stanza by a 25-12 margin to seal the four-set victory.
 
"The plan is to come back tomorrow and learn from today and make some adjustments and come back strong tomorrow," Johnson added.
 
Milwaukee gets right back to action on Saturday beginning with a 9:00 a.m. (CT) match versus Northern Iowa before taking on Villanova later in the day at 3:00 p.m. (CT) to close out the Western Michigan Tournament.
 
Follow along this season with the Panthers on X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram as well as the web at MKEPanthers.com.