MILWAUKEE – It went the distance, but the Milwaukee volleyball team completed a reverse sweep of the Air Force Falcons on Friday night inside the Klotsche Center.
 
Behind a season-high nine service aces, the Panthers were able to come back and win the third set, 25-18, before taking the fourth by a 25-20 margin. Ultimately it was Milwaukee to take the deciding stanza by a 15-13 score to notch head coach Susie Johnson her program-tying 271st victory as the head coach of the Panthers.
 
"Reverse sweeps are hard to come by," commented Johnson post game. "I was proud of the team because they kept their composure the whole time and were receptive to the feedback from our staff to come out on top in the end."
 
The Falcons won the opening two sets by 25-22 and 25-20 scores, as Air Force hit .319 while taking a 2-0 lead. Air Force ended the match hitting .247 over the entirety of the match including a match-low .163 in the fourth followed by a .185 hitting percent in the fifth.
 
"Air Force came out really strong, and we had to push back and prove our offense as the match went on," Johnson added. "Against their defense, we had to quicken up our sets to the outside, and that's hard to execute, but we had to keep going and we did to get that win."
 
After a slow start, the Panther offense was only able to muster 21 kills over the first two sets while hitting under .100 as a team. The switch was flipped in the third and fourth as the Panthers had just six errors while connecting on 37 kills and hitting well over the .400 mark before connecting on 11 more kills of their final 15 points on the match.
 
Madi Malone led the offensive effort with a season-best 23 kills, while Ari Miller had 15 and Natalie Schmitz had 10 for those in double-figures. Bri Geurts added nine kills, while Czhen Beneby added seven to help Milwaukee to 69 kills on the match, just two shy of its season high.
 
The duo of Josie Johnson and Kaley Blake combined for 54 of Milwaukee's 65 assists as a team, as Johnson had 29 and Blake had 25 for the second time this season the pair have recorded at least 25 apiece. Blake along with Miller and Sarah Schrader led the Panthers with two aces apiece, en route to a season-best nine as a team.
 
Schrader also had 22 digs for a team-high, while Johnson added 16 and Malone picked up 15 as the duo both ended the match with double-doubles. Milwaukee also had seven blocks as a team, four shy of Air Force's 11 on the night. Beneby and Miller each registered three blocks apiece, while Schmitz and Lakyn Graves each had two.
 
The Panthers held a late lead in the opening set at 18-16, but a six-point rally by Air Force helped propel the Falcons to a 25-22 opening-set victory. Air Force led late in the second set at 22-20 and was able to pull away late with the final three sets to finish the stanza with a five-point win.
 
Down by two sets, the Panthers looked to do something they hadn't done since October 1, 2021, against Wright State and that's win the final three sets after dropping the first two. It's a feat they accomplished twice that season having also done it against Western Michigan on September 17, 2021.
 
The Panthers opened an early four-point lead behind a Beneby block, Schmitz kill, a block by Beneby and Miller, and a kill by Miller. MKE held a 12-5 lead before Air Force scored the next three to pull back within four. After leading by a 19-16 margin Malone and Miller recorded two kills apiece in another four-point run for the Panthers to push Milwaukee ahead 23-16 before winning the set 25-18.
 
The fourth set was a nail-biter throughout the majority as the Panthers continued to limit the Air Force runs and respond with rallies of their own. Milwaukee was holding on to a slim 18-17 advantage before Malone picked up a kill on a rare assist by Miller, just her sixth of the season and 25th of her career to spur on a Panther rally.
 
After a pair of errors by the Falcons, Malone got another kill on a pass by Kara Erdmann followed by a kill by Johnson to put the black and gold up by a 23-17 score. Air Force scored three of the next four points before Beneby put down a strong kill to tie the match at two sets apiece.
 
In the fifth, Milwaukee pulled out to a quick 4-1 lead with a pair of Malone kills to start off the effort in the final set. Air Force went down swinging and trailed by one at 6-5 before the Panthers connected on the next two points, including a block by Geurts and Graves to give Milwaukee the court-flipping eighth point.
 
The Panthers took a 12-8 lead on a kill by Beneby off a dish by Johnson, but the Falcons answered with two more points to get back within a pair. Air Force fended off a pair of Panther match points to get to within one at 14-13 but Schmitz found the floor attacking from the left side to put the final touch on Milwaukee's comeback effort.
 
Milwaukee will be off this weekend before wrapping up non-conference play on Tuesday evening at Chicago State. The match will begin at 6 p.m. in Chicago with live stats and video links available on MKEPanthers.com.