EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The Milwaukee volleyball team won its fourth match in a row on Friday morning as the Panthers hit a season-best .459 offensively to knock off the Idaho Vandals in straight sets to open the Cougar Classic at First Community Arena.
 
The Panthers won the opening set by a 25-13 score and hit .517, while the team did not commit an error in the second set and hit .542 en route to a 25-16 win. MKE swept the match with by a 25-14 third-set score.

The .459 hitting percentage as a team was Milwaukee's best since November 4, 2021, when the team hit .467 in a three-set home victory over Cleveland State.
 
"We played a very clean game and played well as a team," said head coach Susie Johnson postgame. "We were extremely focused and hit really well in particular Bri [Geurts] hitting .667, and Ari [Miller] at .625."
 
Milwaukee had 45 kills on 38 assists on the match. "Everyone was really contributing in a positive way to get the outcome of all those kills," Johnson added.
 
Defensively, the Panthers held Idaho to a season-best .056 hitting percentage with 38 digs and eight total blocks including three in the solo variety.
 
Ari Miller and Madi Malone led Milwaukee with 11 kills apiece, while Miller hit .625 on the match. Bri Geurts had the best hitting percentage for the Panthers on the morning with eight kills and no errors for a .667 hitting percentage on 12 swings.
 
Czhen Beneby contributed to the offensive output with seven kills, while Natalie Schmitz collected four on the match. Josie Johnson dished out 20 assists, while Kaley Blake collected 13 helpers over three sets.
 
Sarah Schrader continued her strong stretch of late with 16 digs, while both Blake and Mati Jakscht were tied for second on the team with five digs apiece.
 
Miller led the Panthers with four blocks, while Beneby and Lakyn Graves each ended the match with three blocks apiece. Miller, Beneby, and Graves all had one solo block each.
 
Idaho scored the opening point of the match in the first set, which proved to be the Vandal's lone lead of the period as Milwaukee scored the next three points beginning with a kill by Malone. The Panthers led at 10-8 before the offense began to click and pull away from their Idaho foes.
 
Miller, Malone, and Miller again rattled off three unanswered kills before Miller and Schmitz added two more as the Panthers led 15-9. Milwaukee led by an 18-13 margin before finishing off the set with seven unanswered, punctuated by a Geurts kill.
 
After falling behind by two in the second set the black and gold struck back with six-straight points to take a 6-2 lead. Ahead by four late in the set at 20-16, the Panthers capped the set with five unanswered including kills by Geurts, Malone and Blake to give Milwaukee a commanding two-set lead.
 
The Panthers led wire-to-wire in the third set, with the lone blemish coming as ties at both 9-9 and 10-10. Malone put down back-to-back kills before Schrader connected on an ace, followed by a Geurts kill and another Schrader ace. The eight-point run continued and was finished off by a Geurts kill to give the Panthers an 18-10 lead in the third.
 
Milwaukee's late-set strength proved to be too much for Idaho to handle as the Panthers capped off the match by scoring seven of the last eight points as Beneby picked up two late kills including the final point of the match to give Milwaukee the win.
 
The Panthers will be back in action later this afternoon, when they take on the Western Illinois Leathernecks. First serve is slated for 3:00 p.m. at the First Community Center in Southern Illinois.