MILWAUKEE – After splitting a weekend pair with the Wright State Raiders at home, the Milwaukee volleyball team will finish up the non-conference slate on Tuesday with a trip to Marquette at the Al McGuire Center at 7:00 p.m. The second half of Horizon League play will begin as the second-place Panthers (7-2) will host the Youngstown State Penguins (1-8), on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. inside the Klotsche Center.

The match at Marquette will be available for viewing on Flosports, while live stats of all three matches this week will also be available at the links on MKEPanthers.com. 
   
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Tuesday, Oct. 22 | Milwaukee at Marquette | Al McGuire Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 7:00 pm
Friday, Oct. 25 | Youngstown State at Milwaukee | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 6:00 pm
Saturday, Oct. 26 | Youngstown State at Milwaukee | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 2:00 pm
 
GAME LINKS
Live Stats (All Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Flosports (Marquette Match): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Tickets (Home Matches): mkepanthers.com/tickets

PROMOTIONS
Saturday, Oct. 26 | Milwaukee vs. Youngstown State | Black Out

QUICK HITS
» Milwaukee played two this past weekend against Horizon League-leading Wright State at the Klotsche Center with the Panthers winning the opener in five sets, completing their third reverse sweep of the season. The Raiders bounced back with a five-set win of their own to regain first place in the conference.
» Defense was key for the Panthers as Kara Erdmann recorded 77 digs over the two matches including a Milwaukee program record of 47 in Saturday's match, which saw the Panthers finish the contest with 118 digs as a team, just four shy of tying the program record of 122 set during the 2000 season.
» Madi Malone led the offense this past week with 38 kills and a .317 hitting percentage, while Natalie Schmitz had 25 kills, followed by Alexis Lewis with 18. Josie Johnson with 54, and Milica Tomic with 45 combined for 99 of the team's 121 assists.
» Tuesday's match against Marquette will be the final non-conference match of the 2024 season for the Panthers, while the Panthers will host Youngstown State later this week to open the second half of league play.
» Marquette enters play this week at 11-6 overall with a 7-1 mark in Big East play after reverse sweeping DePaul at home on Friday, before sweeping Xavier on Sunday. The Panthers and Golden Eagles have had three common opponents with Stanford, Wisconsin, and DePaul, the only win for the Milwaukee-based programs was Marquette's win over the Blue Demons this past Friday.
» Youngstown State has won seven matches against 14 losses this year with just one win in eight tries in the Horizon League. This past weekend the Penguins won in four sets on Friday against IU Indy but dropped a five-set decision against the Jaguars on Saturday.
» In all-time Division I meetings, Milwaukee is 14-23 against Marquette including a 4-13 record at the Al McGuire Center. Against YSU, the Panthers own a 40-10 mark with a 21-3 record (13-straight wins) at the Klotsche Center against the Penguins.

LOOKING AT MARQUETTE
The Golden Eagles have been hovering around the top-25 all season long in the AVCA poll with an 11-6 overall record and a 7-1 mark in the Big East. All of Marquette's losses have come against top-25 opponents, except for defensive juggernaut Western Michigan on Sept. 8.

Last season, Milwaukee fell to Marquette in four sets with the Panthers avoiding the sweep with a third set win at the Klotsche Center, which was the Golden Eagles' first visit to Milwaukee since 2017. Ella Foti had 15 kills and Aubrey Hamilton added 14, while Yadhira Anchante had 47 assists and led Marquette with three blocks.

Hamilton and Anchante are both seniors now, while Foti is a junior and are all among the team leaders again in 2024. Hamilton has 208 kills while Foti is also among the team leaders with 111. Hattie Bray (135) and Carsen Murray (120) are also threats on the offensive front. Anchante has 623 assists this year and is a threat to dump the ball regularly with 44 kills already through 17 matches.

Bray has a team-best 57 blocks with Murray close behind with 53, followed by Hamilton's 43 and Anchante's 25. The libero position has primarily been occupied by Molly Berezowitz, who is third on the team with 146 digs. Jenna Reitsma has 165 and trails Anchante, who leads the team with 203.

LOOKING AT YOUNGSTOWN STATE
Youngstown State split this past weekend against IU Indy, winning on Friday in four before dropping a five-set contest on Saturday at home. First-year head coach Riley Jarrett has won seven matches through the first two months of the season against 14 losses with a 1-8 mark in Horizon play.

Despite the team's record, Youngstown State has been effective as a team and are currently leading the Horizon League in digs at 1,335 and digs per set at 17.12, both in the top-17 nationally. The team is also 31st nationally in total attacking attempts at 2,905 and attacks per set at 37.24, trailing Milwaukee (3,094) and Cleveland State (37.77) in the Horizon League.

Abbie Householder is the name to watch in terms of offense, with a team-best 314 kills and over 900 attacking attempts this season, she also has been the team's best server with 26 aces on the year. Nyia Setla is second on YSU with 23 aces and serves as one of the Penguins' top defenders with a team-best 324 digs.

Up front, Kelsey Cooper is 11th among Horizon League student-athletes with 53 blocks, which is eighth in blocks per set at 0.88.

UP NEXT
Milwaukee will follow this weekend's home series against Youngstown State with the final match of October on Tuesday, Oct. 29 against Green Bay at 6 p.m. at the Klotsche Center. The Panthers will be on the road for first four in November beginning at Purdue Fort Wayne (Nov. 1-2) and Robert Morris (Nov. 8-9).

ERDMANN'S PROGRAM RECORD
Kara Erdmann has set and re-set her career-best in digs on four separate occasions this season, most recently recording 47 digs on Oct. 19 at home against Wright State. In reaching that mark, Erdmann set the Milwaukee match record for digs breaking the previous mark of 41 set by Becky Peters in 2005.

The record also broke the Horizon League mark of 45 set back during the 1989 season when Jessica Taylor of Butler had 45 against UIC on Sept. 12 of that season.

The 47-dig performance was also the highest dig total of any student-athlete at the Division I level in 2024, surpassing the 45 digs by Jada Willis of Drake against Bradley on Oct. 18, and the 45 of Peyton DeJardin of California against Syracuse on Oct. 12.

She ranks third in all of Division I with 450 total digs, and fourth in digs per set at 5.42.

WITH SUCCESS COMES ACCOLADES
Following her record-setting performance on Saturday against Wright State, while helping the Panthers to a 1-1 record against the Raiders, Erdmann was named Horizon League Player of the Week on Monday afternoon.

The honor was the first in the career for Erdmann, while it was also the first of the 2024 season for the Panthers.

COMING THROUGH IN THE CLUTCH
In the team's Oct. 18 win over Wright State, Natalie Schmitz ended the match with 12 kills, including a team-best six kills in the deciding fifth set. All 12 of Schmitz' kills came in the three sets that the Panthers had won during the reverse sweep over the Raiders.

With her six fifth-set kills, she tied Madi Malone for most kills in a fifth set this season, tying Malone who had a half dozen against Northern Kentucky on Oct. 11. Thus far on the season, Schmitz has led Milwaukee four times in the fifth set with three against both NIU on Sept. 1 and Illinois State on Sept. 13. She also had a team-high two kills against Oakland on Oct. 27 in the fifth set.

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.

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 1,588 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.

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 had won 11 consecutive five-set matches, with their last five-set loss coming to Villanova on Aug. 26, 2023. During the 2024 season, Milwaukee has gone 6-0 in five-set decisions before falling to Wright State on Oct. 19.

The stretch of five-set wins is now the longest in program history, with the previous mark of 10 coming back during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. In a single season, Milwaukee won eight consecutive five-set decisions in 1998 for the single-season mark.

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
Milwaukee has had three reverse sweeps on the season beginning with Illinois State on Sept. 13. In league play, Milwaukee completed the reverse sweep against Oakland on Sept. 27, and followed that up with a third against Wright State on Oct. 18.

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 13 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 24 service aces, which places her 11th 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 11 double-doubles on the season, Madi Malone now has 47 double-doubles for her career.

Malone has 1,376 kills and is now in fourth on the Milwaukee all-time kills list and is 158 behind the third position occupied by Lauren Dallenbach with 1,534.

Her 1,122 digs are also the most among active players, as are her 115 matches played, 431 sets played, and 72 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.

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.