MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee volleyball took down Youngstown State with a pair of sweeps this past weekend as second half of Horizon League play began. This week, Milwaukee will play its final three-match week of the regular season beginning with a home match against Green Bay at home on Tuesday before heading to Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday and Saturday.
 
Matt Menzl will be on the ESPN+ call of the action from the Klotsche Center on Tuesday evening, while Purdue Fort Wayne will be providing ESPN+ coverage of Saturday's match only this weekend. Live stats of all three matches will be available at the links on MKEPanthers.com.
   
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Tuesday, Oct. 29 | Green Bay at Milwaukee | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 6:00 pm
Friday, Nov. 1 | Milwaukee at Purdue Fort Wayne | Gates Sports Center | Fort Wayne, Ind. | 6:00 pm
Saturday, Nov. 2 | Milwaukee at Purdue Fort Wayne | Gates Sports Center | Fort Wayne, Ind. | 1:00 pm
 
GAME LINKS
Live Stats (All Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage
ESPN+ (Tuesday & Saturday Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage

PROMOTIONS
Tuesday, Oct. 29 | Milwaukee vs. Green Bay | Battle of I-43 | Residence Life Night | International Students Night

QUICK HITS
» Milwaukee went 2-0 in Horizon League matches this past weekend, sweeping both ends of the series at home against Youngstown State.
» The wins over YSU have Milwaukee still just a game behind league-leading Wright State who took both of their matches from Green Bay over the weekend.
» Green Bay currently occupies fifth place in the standings at 6-5, while Purdue Fort Wayne is in a tie for third at 7-4 in league matches.
» During Milwaukee's two wins over the Penguins, the Panthers averaged 14.50 kills per set while allowing just 9.33 kills per set on defense. Madi Malone led MKE with 24 kills, while Natalie Schmitz had 17, and Lakyn Graves added 15.
» Schmitz also led Milwaukee in aces with five, including four on Saturday, while Josie Johnson had 34 assists and Milica Tomic dished out 32.
» Defensively, Milwaukee had big blocking performances from Graves with eight against the Penguins, while Malone also stepped up in the blocking game with six vs. YSU. It was once again, Kara Erdmann to lead the way with 42 digs over the pair of matches for the Black & Gold over the weekend.
» Earlier this season, Milwaukee won on the road at the Kress Center, downing the Phoenix in four sets on Oct. 1. Natalie Schmitz had 16 kills to lead the offense that hit .302 against GB.
» With the team's win over Green Bay to begin the month, the Panthers are now 51-25 in all-time Division I meetings. MKE also owns a 24-11 record at the Klotsche Center, with their last win at home coming in the COVID-19 spring season of 2021.
» The Panthers will head to Fort Wayne, Indiana to take on the Mastodons this weekend. Last season when the team's met in Indiana, the teams played a back-and-forth five-set match that saw the Panthers come out on top for their ninth-straight win over PFW, and 10th win in 11 all-time tries against the Mastodons.

LOOKING AT GREEN BAY
Despite two hitters in the top-10 in kills within the Horizon League, the Green Bay offense has only averaged 12.11 kills per set this season, which places them eighth in the ten-team league. Katie Schulz averages 3.27 per set, while Cora Behnke tallies 2.94 per set in terms of kills.

The Phoenix have one of the top servers in the league with Emma Best with 37, which places her second among Horizon League servers. Calli Gentry has been one of the top setters with 765 assists through the team's first 22 matches, including 39 against MKE earlier this month.

Ellie Kurpeikis and Diane Pichelman are both pacing the defensive unit up front with a combined 120 blocks between them. Libero Abby Gardner has the team-high in digs with 344, while Best with 230 and Gentry with 227 are next in line.

This past weekend, Green Bay lost to Wright State in three sets on Friday and took the opening set of a four-set loss on Saturday. Schulz had 26 kills and Cora Behnke had 22 on the weekend, but the Phoenix were outhit by a .263 to .154 margin against the Raiders. GB only had five aces while yielding 13 defensively, while Pichelman had seven blocks to lead the team this weekend at WSU.

LOOKING AT PURDUE FORT WAYNE
When you think of the Mastodons, the first name that comes to mind is Panna Ratkai, who was named Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, while earning a spot on the All-League First Team and the All-Freshman Team in 2023.

Ratkai put the team on her back in Milwaukee's most recent visit to the Gates Sports Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana with 35 kills and four aces as Milwaukee came out on top in a reverse sweep over the Mastodons in 2023. The table turned in an epic 35-33 third-set win for the Panthers to secure the season sweep after a three-set win earlier in the season at the Klotsche Center.

Ratkai currently leads the league again with 363 kills this season and is the only player in the league to average better than five points per set at 5.10 entering play on Tuesday at IU Indy. Middle blocker Jena Medearis is fifth in the league in blocks with 83 and is a two-way threat with 156 kills with a .258 hitting percentage, which is seventh-best in the Horizon League.

Steve Florio's squad won both matches at home this past weekend against Northern Kentucky and are winners of five of their last six heading into play this week. The Mastodons still have Wright State on the road next week before finishing the regular season with Youngstown State at home.

UP NEXT
After the trip to Indiana this weekend, Milwaukee continues on the road for its final two away from the Klotsche Center of the regular season as the Panthers will head to Robert Morris on Nov. 8-9 at the UPMC Events Center.

600 PROGRAM WINS
With the team's win over Youngstown State on Saturday afternoon, Milwaukee recorded its 600th victory while playing at the Division I level. Head Coach Susie Johnson has been a part of 525 of those victories, either as a head coach or an assistant coach, having joined the staff in 1997.

ANOTHER VICTORY MILESTONE ON THE HORIZON
With one more victory this season, Susie Johnson will clinch the 300th victory of her career as the head coach at Milwaukee.

Her current career head coaching record is 299-222 and she is already the program's all-time leader in wins at the Division I level. Johnson is also the all-time winningest coach among coaches of women's sports at Milwaukee.

THAT'S A LOT OF SWINGS
With her 29 attacking attempts in the team's Oct. 26 win over Youngstown State, Madi Malone reached 3,945 attempts for her career. The number breaks the previous all-time career mark of attacking attempts of 3,932 set by Laura Dallenbach, who finished her four years (1998-2001) with 3,932 career attempts.

Against Youngstown State on Oct. 25-26, Malone crossed into the top-10 all-time in sets played. She now has appeared in 440 career sets played, which is now ninth on the all-time list. The program's all-time leader is Ari Miller, who ended her career with 499 career sets played.

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 510 total digs, and third in digs per set at 5.54 entering play this week.

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 1,633 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.

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 1,144 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 16 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 25 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 12 double-doubles on the season, Madi Malone now has 48 double-doubles for her career.

Malone has 1,407 kills and is now in fourth on the Milwaukee all-time kills list and is 131 behind the third position occupied by Lauren Dallenbach with 1,534.

Her 1,144 digs are also the most among active players, as are her 118 matches played, 440 sets played, and 73 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.