MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee volleyball will be at Regents Hall this weekend for a pair of Horizon League matches against the Northern Kentucky Norse on Friday at 5:00 p.m. (CT) and Saturday at 1:00 p.m. (CT). The Panthers and Norse were both projected in the top three of the Horizon League preseason poll, with Milwaukee (5-0) looking to create separation in the standings ahead of NKU (3-2).
 
Both matches will be available on ESPN+ with live stats of both matches also available at the links on MKEPanthers.com.
   
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Friday, Oct. 11 | Milwaukee at Northern Kentucky | Regents Hall | Highland Heights, Ky. | 5:00 pm (CT)
Saturday, Oct. 12 | Milwaukee at Northern Kentucky | Regents Hall | Highland Heights, Ky. | 1:00 pm (CT)
 
GAME LINKS
ESPN+ (Both Match): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Live Stats (Both Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage

QUICK HITS
» Milwaukee improved to 5-0 in Horizon League play after picking up a road win at Green Bay on Tuesday before a pair of sweeps at home against IU Indy on Friday and Saturday.
» The two wins by three sets against IU Indy at the Klotsche Center were the first two sweeps of the season by the Panthers.
» Over the week, Milwaukee was led by Madi Malone with 36 kills, while Natalie Schmitz had 31 on the week. Rachel Scott and Bri Geurts each had 17 kills.
» The Panthers outhit their opponents by a .333 to .155 margin, as Milwaukee had three-straight matches where they increased their single-match hitting percentage as a team. MKE hit .302 at Green Bay, followed by a .330 hitting percentage against IU Indy, and followed that up with a .380 hitting percentage in the second match against the Jaguars.
» Behind the service line, Milwaukee had 21 service aces including eight by Kati Goba, who recorded a career-best four service aces against IU Indy on Friday. She added another three the following afternoon.
» Milwaukee outblocked their opponents this week by a 14-9 margin. Lakyn Graves had nine blocks on the week, while Alexis Lewis and Madi Malone each had four blocks on the week.
» Northern Kentucky has started off the Horizon League season with a 3-2 record including a pair of wins this past weekend at home against Youngstown State. The Norse split with Cleveland State during the opening weekend and fell in three sets to Wright State on Tuesday.
» In 19 all-time meetings at the Division I level, Milwaukee is 9-10 against the Norse of Northern Kentucky. Last season the Panthers swept the Norse winning both matches in four sets each.
» The win last season at NKU snapped Milwaukee's eight-match losing streak at Regents Hall. The Panthers are just 2-8 all time in Highland Heights, Kentucky.

LOOKING AT NORTHERN KENTUCKY
Northern Kentucky was selected to finish second in the Horizon League preseason poll, receiving one first-place vote. The Norse have not had a common opponent with the Panthers at this juncture of the season but have played a challenging schedule including matches against Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Louisville, and Wright State.

Liz Hart has coached the Norse since its transition to Division I, including its last two years at the Division II level. This season Northern Kentucky is in the top-50 in three categories, including 48th in digs per set, 49th in total attacks per set, and 50th in total digs.

Leading the way in terms of digs has been Lucy Cluxton, who individually is 22nd in the nation with 257 digs and 23rd nationally in digs per set at 4.85. Joy Banks is 55th in the nation with 555 attacking attempts and 74th in attacks per set at 10.47.

Banks is sixth in the Horizon League in kills per set at 3.24, just ahead of Milwaukee leader Madi Malone at 3.05 per set. Banks is also the team's top server with 0.31 aces per set with 19 on the year. Meanwhile, Cluxton is third in the league in digs per set, while she is also among the league leaders with 0.29 aces per set with 18 this year.

Allie Siefke is fifth in the league at 0.89 blocks per set, while Ivey Stocks is 0.65 blocks per set. Stocks is in the top-10 in hitting percentage at .259 on the year.

UP NEXT
Milwaukee will take on Northern Kentucky this weekend before returning home next weekend for a pair of Horizon League contests with Wright State on Oct. 18-19. The Panthers and Raiders are the last two unbeaten teams in the Horizon League after the first five contests of the season.

Last year, Milwaukee and Wright State split their two matchups with Milwaukee winning at the Klotsche Center, while Wright State won at home against the Panthers inside CJ McLin Gymnasium.

IN THE LEAGUE
Milwaukee is currently 5-0 in Horizon League play for the first time since the 2021 season. That year, the Panthers finished the season with a 16-2 league record, starting the season 12-0 in league matchups.

UPPING THE HITTING PERCENTAGE
Following three consecutive matches that Milwaukee hit over .300 at Green Bay (Oct. 1), and at home against IU Indy (Oct. 4-5), the Panthers have increased their season hitting percentage from a full 20 percentage points from .178 to .198, entering play this week at Northern Kentucky.

BACK-TO-BACK BELOW 10
Against IU Indy on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, the Panthers had fewer than 10 attacking errors, with six on Friday and five on Saturday.

It was the first time that Milwaukee had fewer than 10 attacking errors in back-to-back matches since 2021. On Nov. 11 at Robert Morris the Panthers had nine hitting errors and followed that up with just seven at Youngstown State in the regular season finale on Nov. 13.

Dating back to the beginning of rally scoring in 2001, Milwaukee has only accomplished the feat twice (2021 & 2024). In 2001, rally scoring was played until the winning team had 30 points, before it was reduced to 25 in 2008.

LIVING ON THE EDGE
Dating back to last season, the Panthers have won nine consecutive five-set matches, with their last five-set loss coming to Villanova on Aug. 26, 2023. During the 2024 season, Milwaukee has gone 4-0 in five-set decisions.

The stretch of five-set wins is the second longest in program history, with the longest five-set match winning streak coming back during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Milwaukee won the final eight five-set decisions in 1998, and first two in 1999.

FIRST-YEAR HIGHS AT OAKLAND
During the team's five-set win over Oakland on Sept. 28, a pair of freshmen recorded career-best marks as Gabby Wire tallied 13 kills, while setter Milica Tomic had a career-high 32 assists.

MILICA, THE ACE
Putting together a strong game from behind the service line against Oakland on Sept. 27, Milica Tomic had five service aces, which placed her in a tie for fourth in terms of single-match success in five-set decisions in Panther history.

Her five aces also place her in a tie for second among all Horizon League players for aces in a match in 2024, while she is currently the only player to record five aces in a conference match this season.

1,000 CAREER DIGS
During the team's win over Iowa, Milwaukee senior Madi Malone recorded the 1,000th dig of her career as she makes a push towards the top-10 in the program's Division I history in digs. Currently the 10th position is occupied by Sam Trawitzke, who finished her career following the 2011 season with 1,412 digs.

Malone had a career-high 319 digs in 2023, after 289 as a sophomore and 292 during her freshman campaign and has 1,071 for her four-year career.

ERDMANN'S NEW HIGH
After setting a career-high with 31 digs against Western Illinois on Aug. 31 earlier this season, Kara Erdmann pushed right past that number with a 36-dig effort in the team's five-set win over Illinois State on Sept. 13.

The 36 digs tied the third highest dig total in a five-set match in program history. The mark equals Sarah Schrader's mark from 2023 and Myanna Ruiz, who had 36 in a five-setter in 2015. The program record for digs in a five-set match is 41 set by Becky Peters back in 2005.

Erdmann is currently fourth in the nation with 293 digs this season, which also places her 18th nationally in digs per set at 4.97 in 2024.

REVERSE SWEEP
On Sept. 13 against Illinois State, the Milwaukee volleyball team reverse swept the Redbirds with 25-20, 25-18, 15-7 set wins in the latter portion of the match. The Panthers recorded their second reverse sweep of the season on Sept. 27 at Oakland, winning 26-24, 25-19, and 15-10.

Milwaukee had two reverse sweeps in 2023 with one coming in non-conference play against Air Force on Sept. 15 and another later in the year against Purdue Fort Wayne in Horizon League action on Oct. 20 in Indiana.

The Panthers did not have any reverse sweeps in 2022 and had two back in 2021 against Western Michigan on Sept. 17, and one on Oct. 1 against Wright State.

LEADING THE TEAM
While many teams rely on one to two hitters to lead their offense, Milwaukee has had five different student-athletes lead the Panthers in kills through the team's season thus far.

Madi Malone has led the team in kills on nine occasions while Natalie Schmitz has led the team five times, Alexis Lewis and Bri Geurts have both led the team in kills on two occurrences this season. Rachel Scott has also led the team in kills once in 2024.

SERVING UP AN ACE
After collecting just three service aces in limited service action as a junior, Lakyn Graves has been the top servers for Milwaukee thus far with a team-best 22 service aces, which places her eighth in the Horizon League.

BUILDING BLOCKS
Milwaukee had a strong showing in the blocking game during two of their three matches of the 2024 Panther Invitational with the team tallying a season-high 14 against Illinois State on Sept. 13 and adding another 13 against Iowa two days later.

Against the Redbirds Lakyn Graves led the team with eight, followed by Alexis Lewis with six and Rachel Scott with four. Later in the weekend, Scott had a career-best with eight with Graves adding six and Bella Lipski getting in on the action with four blocks.

MALONE DOUBLING UP
With eight double-doubles on the season, Madi Malone now has 44 double-doubles for her career.

Malone has 1,303 kills and is now in fifth on the Milwaukee all-time kills list and is 67 behind the fourth position occupied by Karen Fruit with 1,370.

Her 1,071 digs are also the most among active players, as are her 111 matches played, 413 sets played, and 70 service aces.

RECORD-SETTING CROWD
On August 30, the Panthers hosted their first-ever top-five opponent with the Stanford Cardinal visiting the Klotsche Center. With a total of 1,581 in attendance, including a student crowd of 968, the attendance figure broke the previous mark that had stood since the 2006 season, when Milwaukee and No. 11 Wisconsin drew a crowd of 1,121 in the final match of that season's Panther Invitational.

500 CAREER MATCHES
On Sunday, Sept. 1, Susie Johnson coached her 500th career match as the head coach of the Panthers becoming the first head coach in Milwaukee Division I history to reach that milestone. Tom Pleyte, who coached the team from 1978 and through Milwaukee's first three Division I seasons from 1990-92, is the program's all-time leader having served as head coach for 807 matches. Kathy Litzau, who followed Pleyte and preceded Johnson led Milwaukee 423 times.

Last season, Johnson earned her 272nd head coaching victory to become the department's all-time leader in wins in Division I history. She also recorded her 500th win as a Panther, earning 226 victories in 10 seasons as an assistant, while earning her 274th win as head coach against Purdue Fort Wayne on September 23.

TOUGH SLATE ON TAP
Milwaukee is scheduled to play a tough slate of competition in 2024 including six teams that qualified for the 2023 NCAA Championship. The list includes Stanford (Aug. 30), Southern Methodist (Sept. 5), Weber State (Sept. 8), Wisconsin (Sept. 10), Wright State (Oct. 18-19), and Marquette (Oct. 22).

The 2024 American Volleyball Coaches Association Preseason Poll included Wisconsin (No. 3), Stanford (No. 5), Marquette (No. 24), as well as Southern Methodist and Loyola Marymount, who were receiving votes in the preseason tally.

PRESEASON POLL
After finishing the 2023 Horizon League schedule in a tie for second place with a 13-5 record, the Panthers were selected to finish third in the 2024 preseason poll, amassing 73 points and finishing just ahead of Green Bay with 71 points.

Wright State was selected to repeat as champions of the Horizon League with nine first-place votes and 99 points overall, while Northern Kentucky received the final first-place vote and recorded 85 points. Cleveland State took fifth with 63 points, while Oakland was projected to take the final playoff berth with 53 points.