MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee volleyball heads to the opposite side of the Horizon League footprint this weekend, taking on Robert Morris on Friday evening before visiting Youngstown State on Saturday. The team will look to continue its hot stretch of 10 wins in its last 12 contests while looking to improve to 4-0 in Horizon League play for the third time in the last five seasons.

WEEK AT A GLANCE
Friday, September 29 - Milwaukee at Robert Morris | UPMC Events Center | Moon Township, Pa. | 5:00 pm
Saturday, September 30 - Milwaukee at Youngstown State | Beeghly Center | Youngstown, Ohio | 1:00 pm

QUICK LINKS
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FAST FACTS
» After a 3-0 week, the Milwaukee volleyball team heads on the road for its first test in Horizon League play away from the Klotsche Center. The Panthers will open the week against Robert Morris on Friday evening, before traveling to Ohio to take on the Penguins of Youngstown State.
» The Panthers are 5-0 in all-time meetings against Robert Morris, including four wins as conference foes since RMU joined the Horizon League. Milwaukee has swept all five meetings against the Colonials, including last year's visit to the UPMC Events Center, 25-17, 25-20, and 25-17.
» Milwaukee is looking to start the conference season with a 3-0 start for the fourth consecutive season, excluding the altered COVID-19 2020 season. The Panthers started the 2019 season with a 5-0 record, the 2021 season with a 12-0 conference record, and last season with three-straight wins to open the Horizon League slate of action.
» In their most recent trip to Youngstown, Ohio, the Panthers had their seven-match win streak against the Penguins come to an end with a 3-1 loss. The Panthers and Penguins split last year's matches with Milwaukee winning its home contest against YSU in four sets.
» Milwaukee is 38-10 in all-time matches against Youngstown State, including a 36-8 mark as conference foes. The Panthers have a 16-7 record in all-time road matches at YSU.
» The Panthers are led by head coach Susie Johnson, who enters 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 in the September 19 matchup at Chicago State; later in the week she earned her 500th career win on the Panther sideline against Purdue Fort Wayne, which includes her time as both a head coach and an assistant coach.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION – ROBERT MORRIS
Robert Morris will host Northern Kentucky on Tuesday before welcoming Milwaukee to the UPMC Event Center on Friday evening. The Colonials enter the week with a 4-10 mark with a 1-2 record in three Horizon League matches on the young season. The Colonials took a set from Wright State to open league play last Tuesday before winning a four-set match against Cleveland State on the road before RMU was swept by Oakland on Saturday afternoon in Michigan.

The Colonials have struggled on offense and are towards the bottom of the league with a .173 hitting percentage, while only able to record 649 kills to the 716 of their opponents through 14 matches. The Colonials score on the serve and are middle of the pack in the Horizon with 75 aces including 23 from Ashleigh Wallin, and 21 from Natalie Stepanovich. Wallin is the team's primary setter with 280 assists on the year, while Stepanovich has a team-best 162 kills. Defensively, the Colonials have been outblocked by a 122.5 to 53.0 margin, with Emma Brown leading the Colonials with 27 and Azra Eric close behind with 24. Allena Carmody has a team-best 211 digs in the 51 sets played by RMU this season.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION – YOUNGSTOWN STATE
With a 6-8 record overall and a 1-2 mark in Horizon League matches, the Penguins of Youngstown State welcome in Wright State on Tuesday before Green Bay and Milwaukee head to the Beeghly Center this weekend. YSU has a win on the road against Oakland this past Friday, while the team has a pair of four-set losses to Northern Kentucky last Tuesday, and Cleveland State on Saturday.

Youngstown State is third behind league-leader Cleveland State and second-place Milwaukee in the race for the most blocks in the Horizon League with Julia Sell atop the defensive list for the Penguins with 63 on the season, just 10 behind conference leader Ari Miller of Milwaukee. Sell and Miller are two of just five Horizon League student-athletes with at least 10 solo blocks. Youngstown State's offense comes from a variation of attacks as Jazmin Vergara has a team-best 146 kills, followed by Josi Borum with 134 and Abbie Householder with 133. The two-setter offense has Borum leading the team with 282 assists, while Isabel Schaefbauer is right behind with 262.

MILESTONE WEEK
This past week, 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.

Johnson has served as head coach of the Panthers since the fall of 2007 and has a high-water mark of 26 wins with that win total coming in both her inaugural season as head coach in addition to the 2019 season, when the team finished 26-6. In two seasons, Johnson has also won 16 conference games including a 16-0 year in 2011, while also reaching 16 wins against two losses in 2021.

LAST TIME OUT
Milwaukee continues its hot play of late and won all three of its matches a week ago and have won 10 of their last 12 matches including conference wins over IUPUI and Purdue Fort Wayne to open Horizon League play.

The Panthers needed five sets on Tuesday to knock off the Chicago State Cougars, led by a 17-kill and eight-block effort from Ari Miller. Madi Malone added 13 kills in the win, while Josie Johnson accounted for a team-high 22 assists. Czhen Beneby and Lakyn Graves each had six blocks in the effort, while Natalie Schmitz had a season-best three aces to go along with her eight kills.

Milwaukee followed the midweek performance up with a three-set sweep over IUPUI on Friday night with Schmitz leading the offensive attack with eight kills. Miller registered eight blocks for the second consecutive match, while Kaley Blake contributed with a team-best 12 assists and had eight digs to lead the way.

The Black and Gold capped off the week with a straight-set win over Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday behind another strong blocking effort for the Panthers, as Milwaukee had seven blocks for fourth consecutive match including a season-best 14 in each match against Chicago State and IUPUI. Against the Mastodons, Miller had a team-best 13 kills without an error for a .650 hitting percentage, while Rachel Scott had a career night with nine kills on the night. Sarah Schrader had 17 digs and added six assists, while Blake and Johnson combined for 34 assists on the match.

THE MONTH OF ARI
For the third and final time in the month of September, middle blocker Ari Miller was selected as the Horizon League Player of the Week. Miller helped the Panthers to a 3-0 mark as she averaged 3.27 kills per set with a team-best 36 kills over Milwaukee's 11 sets, while hitting .500 percent with just two hitting errors on the week. Offensively she also added three service aces and one assist to her effort.

On the defensive side of the ball, Miller contributed with 21 blocks including 18 assisted blocks and three solo blocks. She had a season-high eight blocks in the team's matchups against Chicago State and IUPUI. Miller also had eight digs on the week.

This was the ninth time in her career that she has earned Horizon League Player of the Week accolades, while she has also been named to All-Tournament Teams on two occasions at both Western Michigan and St. Thomas to start off the season.

MILLER'S TOP-10 ASCENT
With 198 kills this season, Ari Miller now has 1,378 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 73 blocks in her final collegiate season to give her 389 career blocks. She is currently in sixth on the all-time blocks list and needs five more to reach the top-five on the all-time blocks list.

Miller also moved into the top-10 all time in both matches played and sets played having played in all three sets against Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday. Miller has now seen time in 118 career matches and 434 sets played, her sets played number ties her with current Associate Head Coach Lindsey Vanden Berg, who appeared in the identical number of sets during her career from 2000-03.

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 230 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 4.11 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.

EIGHT IS GREAT FOR NUMBER 14
A regular for the Panthers since her career began, Madi Malone has been one of the most consistent pieces in the Panther lineup throughout the year as she plays all the way around and is second on the team with 141 digs, and second on the team with 169 kills.

This year, Malone has gotten at least eight kills in 13 of Milwaukee's 16 matches, and 23 of her last 30 matches dating back to October 1 of the 2022 season. Over that stretch, Malone's high in kills was 23 against Air Force on September 15, 2023, while her career-high of 29 kills came on October 1 of her first year with the team in 2021.

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 16 matches Milwaukee has 146 blocks and are on a strong pace to continue their upward trend in 2023.

The Panthers are currently second in the Horizon League with their team block total and are also second in the league in solo blocks with 37 thus far. Lakyn Graves and Ari Miller lead Milwaukee with 10 solo blocks, while Czhen Beneby has nine on the year. Graves and Miller are fourth in the Horizon League, with Beneby close behind in seventh place.

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.

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 the farthest trip to the east end of the Horizon League, Milwaukee returns home for its next three matches beginning with Green Bay on October 3. That match will be followed by two more at home including Northern Kentucky on October 6, and Wright State on October 7.