MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee volleyball team will welcome the Wright State Raiders to the Klotsche Center this weekend in a pair of Horizon League matches that will pit the top two teams in the standings against one another. The Raiders enter the weekend unblemished at 7-0, while the Panthers are looking to rebound after their first league loss at Northern Kentucky this past Saturday as Milwaukee is 6-1 in Horizon play.

Both matches this weekend will be available on ESPN+ with Matt Menzl on the call, while live stats will also be available at the links on MKEPanthers.com.
   
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Friday, Oct. 18 | Wright State at Milwaukee | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 6:00 pm
Saturday, Oct. 19 | Wright State at Milwaukee | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 2:00 pm
 
GAME LINKS
ESPN+ (All Match): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Live Stats (All Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Tickets (Home Matches): mkepanthers.com/tickets

PROMOTIONS
Friday, Oct. 18 | Milwaukee vs. Wright State | ROTC Night
Saturday, Oct. 19 | Milwaukee vs. Wright State | Camper Appreciation | Youth Day

QUICK HITS
» With a split this past weekend at Northern Kentucky, the Milwaukee volleyball team sits in second place in the Horizon League with a 6-1 league mark. The Panthers will welcome league-leading Wright State to the Klotsche Center on Friday and Saturday with a chance to overtake first place in the league with a pair of wins.
» The Panthers won Friday's opener at Northern Kentucky with a dramatic 3-2 win before falling for the first time in league play against the Norse in straight sets on Saturday.
» This past week, Milwaukee was led by Madi Malone with 35 kills, while Natalie Schmitz had 26 kills on the week. Also reaching double figures were Lakyn Graves (14), Alexis Lewis (13), Rachel Scott (13), and Bri Geurts (10).
» Josie Johnson had 50 assists over two matches last week, while Milica Tomic had 33. Tomic was second on the team with a pair of service aces, as the Panthers were led by Kati Goba with six aces against the Norse.
» Defensively, Kara Erdmann had 57 digs over the weekend, while Madi Malone was second on the team with 20. Lakyn Graves had a team-best 13 blocks, while Lewis was second for Milwaukee with four.
» Four Panthers had career marks in the five-set win over Northern Kentucky on Friday night, as Natalie Schmitz with 18 and Rachel Scott with 10 kills each set new career bests. Josie Johnson had a career-best 33 assists, with Kara Erdmann re-setting her career high for the third time this season with 38 digs.
» Wright State has coasted their way to a 7-0 league start, including six sweeps. The Raiders took care of Youngstown State in back-to-back sweeps on Friday and Saturday in Youngstown, Ohio. WSU had 29 kills from Sam Ott, while Mya Ayro was second on the team with 28 kills. Lauren Yacobucci had 86 assists to tempo the offense.
» Haley Robinson led Wright Stat's defensive effort with five blocks, as three other Raiders had three blocks this past weekend at YSU. Jenny Wessling had a team-best 32 digs followed by Lauren Yacobucci with 23 and Sam Ott with 23.
» The Panthers are 45-22 against the Raiders in 67 all-time Division I matchups, including a split in 2023 that saw the home team win each contest in four sets. The Panthers are 25-7 in all-time meetings with the Raiders at the Klotsche Center, including a 24-3 record over the last 27 meetings, 13 of which were sweeps.

LOOKING AT WRIGHT STATE
The most successful team over the past five seasons in the Horizon League, the Raiders have won 81 conference matches dating back to the 2019 season, with Milwaukee second at 64 wins over that span. Head coach Travers Green has kept the team in its winning ways following the success of Allie Matters, who now leads Illinois State.

Green's squad sits at 15-3 overall this season including victories over No. 20 Miami, as well as Ohio State, while the team has only been swept once this season with that coming against No. 22 Dayton on Sept. 6.

While the team graduated its three first team all-league selections from a season ago, sophomore Reilly Zegunis was a second team selection as a freshman and has backed up her first-year success with a team-best 47 blocks, while adding 164 kills on the offensive side.

The top setter in the country is Lauren Yacobucci, who has a nation-leading 11.92 assists per set, while she is seventh in the nation in total assists with 739. With those assists, Wright State is also among the national leaders in kills per set and are second in team rankings with 14.71 kills per set.

The Raiders are led by Mya Ayro at 3.78 kills/set, while Sam Ott averages 3.60 per set with 223 and 219 kills respectively this season, both of which are good enough for top-10 marks in the Horizon League.

Libero Jenny Wessling leads the team with 294 digs this season, while Katie Sowko is second at 152. Jenny Morey at 147, and Yacobucci at 145 are closing in on the 150 mark, while Sam Ott is not far behind at 131. Yacobucci is a setter that can also block, as she is second to Zegunis with 27, while Taylor Bransfield is level with Yacobucci in the blocks category for the team.

UP NEXT
Milwaukee will have back-to-back weeks with three matches following their home weekend with Wright State, beginning with a trip to Marquette on Oct. 22 for the team's final non-conference match of the season.

The Panthers will be back home against Youngstown State on Oct. 25-26 before welcoming Green Bay to the Klotsche Center on Oct. 29 to close out the month. The Panthers head to Purdue Fort Wayne on Nov. 1-2 to begin the final three weeks of the league slate.

RECORD-SETTING NIGHT IN HIGHLAND HEIGHTS
On Oct. 11, four Panthers set new career highs during the team's five-set win over the Northern Kentucky Norse at Regents Hall.

After reaching 17 kills on six separate occasions, Natalie Schmitz finally broke free of the number and had 18 against the Norse. Rachel Scott had reached a then-career-best nine kills on three separate occasions, including twice in 2024, before her first career double-digit kill total with 10 at NKU.

Also setting career-marks were Josie Johnson with 33 assists, eclipsing her previous high-water mark of 32 set against Western Illinois early last season.

For the third time this season, Kara Erdmann has re-set her career-best total in digs, tallying 38 against the Norse. She had previously recorded 36 against Illinois State at home, and 31 against Western Illinois on the first weekend of the season.

Erdmann's 38 digs in a five-set match were the third-most in program history in a five-set match and three off tying Becky Peters' mark of 41 set on Sept. 15, 2005, against George Washington. Only two Panther have ever recorded 40 digs in a match of any length with Peters' 41 coming in five sets, while Lauren Felsing had 40 digs in a four-set match on Sept. 25, 2009, at Green Bay.

1,500 CAREER ASSISTS
With her career match-best 33 assists at Northern Kentucky on Oct. 11, Josie Johnson became just the 11th player in Milwaukee program history to reach 1,500 career assists in her two-plus seasons with the Panthers.

Johnson now has 1,534 assists in her career and is closing in on the top-10 mark in program history, currently occupied by Kaley Blake with 1,760. Johnson would need to surpass the 2,000 assist mark to break into the top nine, currently occupied by Leanne Felsing with 2,264. The all-time program record is 5,276 set by Katie Schneider during her career from 1996-99.

ERDMANN'S NEW HIGH
After setting a career-high with 31 digs against Western Illinois on Aug. 31 and 36 against Illinois State on Sept. 13 earlier this season, Kara Erdmann pushed right past that number with a 38-dig effort in the team's five-set win over Northern Kentucky on Oct. 11.

Erdmann is currently fifth in the nation with 373 digs this season, which also places her 11th nationally in digs per set at 5.11 in 2024.

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 10 consecutive five-set matches, with their last five-set loss coming to Villanova on Aug. 26, 2023. During the 2024 season, Milwaukee has gone 5-0 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 first among all Horizon League players for aces in a league match in 2024.

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 Morgan Potter, who finished her career following the 2011 season with 1,205 digs.

Malone had a career-high 319 digs in 2023, after 289 as a sophomore and 292 during her freshman campaign and has 1,091 for her four-year career.

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 11 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 13th 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 nine double-doubles on the season, Madi Malone now has 45 double-doubles for her career.

Malone has 1,338 kills and is now in fifth on the Milwaukee all-time kills list and is 32 behind the fourth position occupied by Karen Fruit with 1,370.

Her 1,091 digs are also the most among active players, as are her 113 matches played, 421 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.