MILWAUKEE – After a 2-1 weekend at the SIUE Cougar Classic, the Milwaukee volleyball team returns home to the Klotsche Center for three consecutive non-conference matches including DePaul on Tuesday, Marquette on Thursday, and Air Force on Friday. The Panthers are currently 5-5 on the season and will look to wrap-up the non-league slate strong before conference play begins on September 22.

WEEK AT A GLANCE
Tuesday, September 12 - Milwaukee vs. DePaul | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 6:00 pm
Thursday, September 14 - Milwaukee vs. Marquette | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 6:00 pm
Friday, September 15 - Milwaukee vs. Air Force | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 6:00 pm 

QUICK LINKS
Live Stats (All Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Live Audio (DePaul): mkepanthers.com/coverage
ESPN+ (Marquette & Air Force): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Follow Along (On X [Formerly Twitter]): @MKE_Volleyball
Tickets (Home Matches): mkepanthers.com/tickets

PROMOTIONS (Full Promotional Schedule)
Tuesday vs. DePaul - "Welcome to the Jungle" Night (Jungle Theme Night with Music & Decorations)
Thursday vs. Marquette - T-Shirt Giveaway (First 100 Milwaukee Students with Student ID)
Friday vs. Air Force - Military Appreciation Night & Girl Scouts Night

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION – DEPAUL
The Blue Demons enter Tuesday's matchup at 5-3 overall including wins in their last five contests. DePaul has picked up wins against Binghamton, Montana, Northern Illinois, St. Thomas, and Evansville before making its way to the Klotsche Center on September 12. The team ranks seventh in the Big East in hitting percent and are seventh in the league in opponent hitting percent. The Blue Demons also lead the conference in blocks at 2.54 per set, while they are third in the 11-team conference in digs at 16.23 per set.

Jill Pressly leads the offensive attack with 111 kills through eight matches, while Audrey Klemp is second with 95 kills on the year. Maggie Jones has 174 assists, while Ashley Cudiamat has 107 in reserve for a DePaul team that is averaging 12.88 assists per set, good enough for second in the Big East. Rachel Krasowski leads Depaul in digs with 132 for more than five per set, while Meghan Scholz with 25, Bailey Nelson with 18 lead the team in blocks, Aly Kindelberger and Katelynn Oxley each have 17 blocks apiece on the young season.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION – MARQUETTE
Despite a 2-5 record to start the season, Marquette continues to be one of the top teams in the region. The Golden Eagles enter this week on a four-match losing streak with all four of those losses coming against programs that are nationally ranked. The Golden Eagles have played the sixth toughest schedule in the nation entering play this week and will also play top-ranked Wisconsin on Wednesday a day before coming to the Klotsche Center.

Aubrey Hamilton is tops on Marquette with 96 kills and 112 points, while Hattie Bray has 67 and Kenna Reitsma has 59 kills for a Golden Eagle squad that has hit .174 on the season. Yadhira Anchante has amassed 249 assists on the season and continues to be a weapon for Marquette beyond her assists with 14 kills through the team's first seven matches. Four players for Marquette have at least 50 digs on the year including Anchante and Ella Foti, who are tied for the team lead with 75 digs apiece, averaging better than 2.5 digs per set. Up front, Hattie Bray and Carsen Murray have clogged up the middle for opposing offenses with Bray recording 20 blocks, while Murray has 16 on the season.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION – AIR FORCE
Air Force has one of the best winning percentages in the first three weeks of the 2023 season with an 8-1 record for an .889 winning percentage. The Falcons started the year with a 2-1 record at home before sweeping a trio of matches at Gonzaga including common opponent Idaho on September 2. The Falcons have since swept their way through the Santa Clara Tournament and are on a six-match winning streak before heading east for the only time this season.

Air Force has the top defense in the Mountain West Conference as opponents have only been able to hit .130 against the stout Falcon defense. Mac Russ has 54 blocks, Joi Harvey has 43, and Aaryn Scires has 32 blocks on the year. In terms of digs, Jordan Suan has 144 while Caroline Reinkensmeyer is second on the team just shy of two digs per set at 1.97 with 75 digs over 38 sets. Defense has turned into offense for the Falcons with Reinkensmeyer spearheading the setting efforts for Air Force with 220 assists, her passes have been distributed to Harvey with 90 kills, Scires with 88, and Ella Tschour with 77 kills on the year.

SERIES HISTORY
Milwaukee and DePaul have met 15 times as Division I opponents with the Panthers currently on a seven-match winning streak against their foes from Chicago. This will be their first meeting since 2017, and just their second since 2010. In eight meetings in Milwaukee, the Panthers own a 6-2 record and have not lost since the 2002 season.

One of Milwaukee's most common non-conference opponents, the Panthers welcome the Golden Eagles back to the Klotsche Center for the first time since 2017. Milwaukee and Marquette have met on 36 occasions on the volleyball court, with the Golden Eagles owning a 22-14 record against the Panthers including wins in the last dozen matchups. The last matchup won by the black and gold came on October 17, 2007.

This will be the first-ever meeting between Milwaukee and Air Force. Milwaukee is just 4-8 all-time against teams currently making up the Mountain West Conference, with two wins each against San Jose State and Wyoming.

LAST TIME OUT
Milwaukee went 2-1 at the SIU-Edwardsville Cougar Classic this past weekend, picking up a straight-set win over Idaho, while needing five sets to knock off Western Illinois. The team was not able to sweep the weekend, as the Panthers fell to host SIUE in four sets on Saturday.

Bri Geurts was named as a member of the All-Tournament team for her efforts as she had 32 kills and hit .475 on 61 attempts this past weekend. Ari Miller led the Panthers with 40 kills, while Madi Malone had 36 and Natalie Schmitz had 30. Josie Johnson and Kaley Blake combined for 129 of Milwaukee's 152 assists, while the Panthers tallied 13 service aces including a team-best five from Sarah Schrader.

Schrader also led the defense with 70 digs, while Blake added 25 and Malone picked up 24 on the weekend set. Miller had a team-best 12 blocks, while Lakyn Graves was second on the team with 11 blocks.

1,000 DIVISION I MATCHES
On Friday, 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 first-ever match took place on August 31, 1990, against Wright State in Macomb, Illinois at a tournament hosted by Western Illinois.

INDIVIDUAL ACCOLADES
With the team sitting at 5-5 overall, the Panthers have picked up four individual honors this season including one from the Horizon League.

On September 5, Ari Miller was named Horizon League Player of the Week for her strong efforts at the St. Thomas Tommies Invitational in addition to the team's win over Northwestern. Miller was also an All-Tournament Team selection at both the Western Michigan and St. Thomas Tournaments, Bri Geurts was named to the All-Tournament Team at SIU-Edwardsville this past weekend in the final preparations for conference play.

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 145 digs. Schrader is closing in on her sophomore year total of 179 digs and is almost halfway to her career-best 324 digs as a junior in 2022. This season, Schrader has set and re-set career-best marks for a single match with 25 against St. Thomas, while eclipsing that mark more recently with 36 digs against Western Illinois.

With her 36 digs against the Leathernecks 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.

IT'S BEEN A BRI-ZY SEPTEMBER
Over the last six matches, Bri Geurts has been tops for the team in hitting percentage, connecting on .411 of her total attacks this month with 56 kills. She has helped lead Milwaukee to a .288 hitting percentage as a unit, while the Panthers have outhit their opponents by more than 100 percentage points at .288 to .172.

With her recent hot stretch, Geurts has climbed into third in the Horizon League in hitting percentage at .340 on the season over the 34 sets that she has appeared in. Teammate Ari Miller leads the conference with a .385 hitting percentage in 2023, while Madi Malone is also in the top-25 in the league in the 22nd position with a .214 hitting percentage.

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 10 matches Milwaukee has 90 blocks and are on a strong pace to continue their upward trend in 2023.

The Panthers are currently leading the Horizon League with their 90 blocks and are also second in the league in solo blocks with 26 thus far. Czhen Beneby and Lakyn Graves each have seven solo blocks apiece, which is currently tied for third in the Horizon League for solo blocks. Individually, Ari Miller has 40 total blocks this season, while Graves has 34 blocks thus far on the year.

Graves has seven blocks in the team's five-set win over Western Illinois, which places her second on the single-match blocks list for a five-set match; the most a Panther has had in a single match is eight. Karen Fruit had eight blocks in a four-set match in 2004, while Sue Swirth had eight blocks in a five-set match in 1997.

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 wins over Villanova, Montana State, and Northwestern. Johnson also reached a career-high mark in the match against the Bobcats of Montana State with 31 assists.

DOUBLE-QUARTER
In the team's match versus Villanova, Josie Johnson (30) and Kaley Blake (26) both accumulated more than 25 assists each for just the second time in their career together. The first instance came 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.

MILLER'S TOP-10 ASCENT
With 126 kills this season, Ari Miller now has 1,306 for her career with the black and gold, that total now places her fourth on the all-time Division I kills list in Milwaukee program history. Next on the list is Karen Fruit in third place all-time as Fruit finished her career with 1,370 career kills.

In addition to her kills mark, Miller now has 40 blocks in her final collegiate season to give her 356 career blocks. She is currently in eighth on the all-time blocks list and needs 22 more to reach seventh on the all-time blocks list.

LOOKING AHEAD
Milwaukee will head on the road next week with a road tilt at Chicago State. It will be the team's final non-conference tune-up before Milwaukee opens up Horizon League play with IUPUI on September 22 and Purdue Fort Wayne on September 23.