MILWAUKEE – The 2024 regular season will reach the finish line this weekend as the Milwaukee volleyball team hosts the Cleveland State Vikings for a pair of matches at the Klotsche Center. Friday's contest will be played at 6:00 p.m., while the Saturday matchup is set for a 2:00 p.m. first serve.
 
Friday will be Alumni Day at 'The K'. The Panthers will then celebrate the six members of their senior class for the annual Senior Day celebrations, which a brief celebration taking place prior to the match, while the full celebration will follow the conclusion of Saturday's match against the Vikings.
 
Michelle Griffin-Wenzel will be on the ESPN+ call of Friday evening's match, while Matt Menzl returns on Saturday for the ESPN+ broadcast of the regular season finale against the Vikings. Live stats of both matches will be available at the links on MKEPanthers.com.
   
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Friday, Nov. 15 | Cleveland State at Milwaukee | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 6:00 pm
Saturday, Nov. 16 | Cleveland State at Milwaukee | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 2:00 pm
 
GAME LINKS
ESPN+ (Both Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Live Stats (Both Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Tickets (Home Matches): mkepanthers.com/tickets

PROMOTIONS
Friday, Nov. 15 | Milwaukee vs. Cleveland State | Alumni Day
Saturday, Nov. 16 | Milwaukee vs. Cleveland State | Senior Day

QUICK HITS
» Milwaukee has been on a roll winning a season-best seven consecutive matches entering play this weekend against Cleveland State. It's the Panthers' longest winning streak since the 2021 season, when they won 12 matches in a row from Sept. 24 to Oct. 25 of that season.
» Most recently, the Panthers took care of business at Robert Morris this past weekend, winning on Friday in five sets before sweeping the Colonials on Saturday afternoon in Pennsylvania.
» Leading the way for Milwaukee was Madi Malone with another 28 kills, while Natalie Schmitz added 22 and the Panthers got 19 from Alexis Lewis in the middle. As a team, the Panthers hit .285, while the defensive effort limited Robert Morris to just a .178 hitting percentage.
» Kara Erdmann covered the floor once again for the Panthers with 54 digs, while Josie Johnson had a strong weekend with 30 digs. Johnson added 46 assists on offense while Milica Tomic had 33 helpers against the Colonials.
» Milwaukee's block was strong once again as they outblocked RMU by an 18-10 margin. Lewis and Lakyn Graves had a team-best nine blocks, while Rachel Scott added five.
» The Panthers welcome in Cleveland State, who have won six of their last eight including a pair of weekend wins at home over Youngstown State. Liberty Torres paced the Vikings with 40 kills with a .382 hitting percentage, while Ella Mihacevich tallied 88 assists.
» Defensively, the Vikings had Emma Walker lead the way with 53 digs with Allana Appleby assisting on nine blocks as CSU had 15 blocks to the nine of Youngstown State.
» Milwaukee has had its share of hiccups of late against Cleveland State, dropping the last five matches including last season's Horizon League Quarterfinal bout. The Panthers do own a 49-25 all-time mark against the Vikings including a 28-6 record at home.

LOOKING AT CLEVELAND STATE
Cleveland State under longtime head coach Chuck Voss is 19-8 as they head to Milwaukee this weekend with a 10-6 mark in Horizon League matchups. The Vikings have a pair of losses to Wright State and IU Indy, while also dropping matches to Purdue Fort Wayne and Northern Kentucky.

The Vikings are currently third in the Horizon League in hitting percentage at .216, just .001 behind Milwaukee for second. Defensively, Cleveland State is in second in the league with a .187 hitting percentage against, the Panthers are in third and just behind with a .189 hitting percentage against.

The offense is led by Liberty Torres and her 393 kills, while Nia Hall has chipped in with 310 this season. One of the top setters in the league is Ella Mihacevich, who enters the weekend just two assists shy for 1,000 for the season, while she is also the top server on the team with 32 aces in 2024.

The Vikings are currently the top blocking team in the Horizon League averaging 2.27 per set, as well as the top digging team in the league with an average of 17.44 digs per set. Allana Appleby leads the way up front with 87 blocks this season, while Emma Walker has been covering the floor for the Vikings with 525 digs and an average of 5.25 digs per set. Both of Walker's numbers are top-10 in all of NCAA Division I.

Cleveland State is currently in the driver's seat for the third seed in the upcoming Horizon League Championship but can slip a spot to fourth place. The Vikings need to win just one game against Milwaukee or have Green Bay drop one of two this weekend at home against Robert Morris.

PLAYOFF PICTURE TAKING SHAPE
Wright State and Milwaukee have clinched first round byes and will jockey for the top spot in the Horizon League standings to earn hosting duties for the postseason next weekend. The Raiders will need to drop both of its matches to Oakland, while Milwaukee will need to take both against Cleveland State for the tournament to be hosted by the Panthers at the Klotsche Center.

Cleveland State, Green Bay, and Purdue Fort Wayne are also locked into the tournament and will play in the quarterfinal round next Friday. Cleveland State is currently in third with Green Bay right on their heels in fourth. The Mastodons have clinched a berth, but can shift between the fourth seed, fifth seed, or sixth seed.

Battling it out for the final postseason berth are IU Indy and Northern Kentucky. Right now the Jaguars have the slimmest of advantages over the Norse, with multiple playoff scenarios needing to play out to ultimately determine who gets the sixth seed.

UP NEXT
Milwaukee will enter the Horizon League Championship bracket as one of the top two seeds, clinching a bye into the semifinal round on Saturday, Nov. 23. The Panthers still have a chance at the top seed and hosting rights with a pair of wins against Cleveland State, while Milwaukee will be rooting hard for Oakland to knock off Wright State twice this weekend.

CELEBRATING OUR SENIORS
On Saturday the Milwaukee volleyball team will celebrate the six members that compile its senior class: Czhen Beneby, Tatum Catalano, Bri Geurts, Lakyn Graves, Alexis Lewis, and Madi Malone.

In their 425 combined Milwaukee matches entering play this weekend against Cleveland State, they have amassed 2,884 kills, 132 assists, 133 service aces, 1,546 digs, and 842 digs.

Catalano, Geurts and Malone have been four-year Panthers, while Beneby and Graves transferred to Milwaukee to start the 2022 season from Virginia and Omaha, respectively. Lewis joined the team this season as a transfer from Memphis.

WELCOME HOME, ALUMNAE
Friday evening, Milwaukee will be celebrating Alumnae Day as Panthers over the years will return to the Klotsche Center and be recognized for their contributions to the program!

CLOSING IN ON THE SINGLE-SEASON MARK
With 630 digs entering the final weekend of the regular season, Kara Erdmann currently has 630 digs and is averaging 5.68 digs per set. The single-season record for Milwaukee is currently held by Lauren Felsing, who had a program-best 645 digs during the 2008 season.

Felsing averaged 5.04 digs per set that season, while the single-season mark is 5.06 held by Jess Grabowski in 2019.

SCHMITZ' OUTBURST EARNS WEEKLY HONORS
With 46 kills, including a career-high 19 on Nov. 1 against Purdue Fort Wayne, Natalie Schmitz earned Horizon League Player of the Week honors as announced by the league on Monday. Schmitz had an impressive .356 hitting percentage with just nine errors on a team-best 104 swings over Milwaukee's three matches.

The award was the first weekly honor of Schmitz' career, as she also added a team-best five service aces last week along with 19 digs and a pair of blocks.

1,000 CAREER DIGS: KARA ERDMANN EDITION
With a career-best 630 digs this season, it came as no surprise that Kara Erdmann reached the 1,000 dig plateau for her career. Erdmann's 22 digs in the Nov. 2 win over Purdue Fort Wayne gave her exactly 1,000 with four matches left this regular season.

To break into the top-10 on the career list, Erdmann will need to reach 1,205 to tie Morgan Potter, who finished her career with 1,205 in 2011. The career record is held by Lauren Felsing with 1,929 digs.

300 HEAD COACHING WINS
After reaching several coaching milestones in 2023, Susie Johnson accomplished yet another during the team's win over Green Bay on Oct. 29 as she earned the 300th win as head coach of the Panthers.

Since joining the staff as an assistant, Johnson has been a part of 528 wins with Milwaukee. While her head coaching ledger now has 322 wins on it, which includes her 20 wins as the head coach of Parkside in 1993 and 1994.

600 PROGRAM WINS
With the team's win over Youngstown State Oct. 26, Milwaukee recorded its 600th victory while playing at the Division I level.

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 career mark of attacking attempts set by Laura Dallenbach, who finished her four years (1998-2001) with 3,932 career attempts. Malone has since become the first player with over 4,000 attempts in her career, and is currently at 4,136.

Against Youngstown State on Oct. 25-26, Malone also crossed into the top-10 all-time in sets played. She now has appeared in 459 career sets played, which is now fifth 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 second in all of Division I with 630 total digs, and second in digs per set at 5.68 entering play this week.

WITH SUCCESS COMES ACCOLADES
Following her record-setting performance against Wright State on Oct. 19, Kara Erdmann was named Horizon League Player of the Week on Monday afternoon.

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 1,741 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 Panthers have since gone 1-0 restarting a new streak against Robert Morris on Nov. 8.

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.

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: MADI MALONE EDITION
During the team's win over Iowa on Sept. 15, 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 1,194 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.

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 18 occasions while Natalie Schmitz has led the team eight 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 30 service aces, which places her 16th in the Horizon League.

MALONE DOUBLING UP
With 14 double-doubles on the season, Madi Malone now has 50 double-doubles for her career.

Malone has 1,469 kills and is now in fourth on the Milwaukee all-time kills list and is 65 behind the third position occupied by Lauren Dallenbach with 1,534.

Her 1,194 digs are also the most among active players, as are her 123 matches played, 459 sets played, and 76 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.