MILWAUKEE – Behind the 12th double-double of the season from Madi Malone the Milwaukee volleyball team swept the Youngstown State Penguins on Friday night in the Klotsche Center.
 
Malone tallied 11 kills and 10 digs while hitting .346 to pace the Panther offense that had 44 kills on the night. Natalie Schmitz notched nine kills and hit .308 as Milwaukee finished the night hitting .283 as a team.
 
"We had a good game plan coming into tonight," commented head coach Susie Johnson. "We were efficient as a unit by making some smart decisions and just played very cohesively."
 
Milwaukee won the opening two sets in close scores at 25-21 and 25-23 but were able to power past Youngstown State with a 25-16 third set score.
 
Milica Tomic with 19 assists and Josie Johnson with 14 combined for 33 of the team's 41 on the evening.
 
Kara Erdmann led the team with 23 digs and held the team-high with a pair of aces. The defensive effort was rounded out by Milwaukee's four blocks including two apiece from Lakyn Graves, Lewis, Malone, and Rachel Scott.
 
The Panthers trailed 3-1 in the opening set, but scored the next four and did not turn back despite several attempts by the Penguins to close the gap. Erdmann had 10 of Milwaukee's 17 digs in the first period to keep the Youngstown State in check. Malone and Schmitz each had three kills in the set including the clincher by Schmitz to make it 25-21.
 
Milwaukee fell behind 18-15 midway through the second set before a well-called time-out sparked a seven-point run. The Panther offense scored all seven points on kills including three from Lewis, and two each by Bri Geurts and Schmitz to take back the lead. MKE closed out the second set on a kill by Johnson after a late four-point rally by Youngstown State.
 
The third set saw Milwaukee score the first six points and led by as many as eight at both 15-7 and 23-15 before pulling away late to win 25-16.
 
After just one block in the first set, the Panthers were effective with three in the clinching set, including the game-winner on an assisted block by Lewis and Scott.
 
"We started communicating better," Johnson added on the team's blocking effort. "We were able to both score on the block and also used it to channel to our defense and get digs on the other attempts."
 
Milwaukee's defense held the Penguins to an .088 for the match with just 32 kills against 22 errors. YSU was led by Abbie Householder with 10 kills while Isabel Schaefbauer had 25 helpers. Nyia Setla had 15 digs, while Dayan Malave had a team-high four blocks on defense.
 
Milwaukee and Youngstown State will meet again on Saturday afternoon with a 2:00 p.m. start at the Klotsche Center.