MILWAUKEE – The 2024 regular season ended on Saturday afternoon at the Klotsche Center as the Cleveland State Vikings registered a three-set win over the Milwaukee Panthers.
 
Josie Johnson had a double-double for Milwaukee with 16 assists and 11 digs, while Kara Erdmann added another 21 digs to her single-season record-setting campaign. The Panthers outblocked the Vikings by an 8-5 margin, including a team-best seven from Lakyn Graves.
 
Milwaukee struggled to get a consistent offensive effort started, hitting just .092 on the afternoon with 19 errors against 29 kills in 109 attempts. Cleveland State on the contrary had 41 kills and hit .212 on the match.
 
"Give Cleveland State credit," commented head coach Susie Johnson after the match. "They came to play and executed at a high level … meanwhile we had a difficult time getting into any type of rhythm and had a hard time responding."
 
The Vikings took the opening two sets by identical 25-19 scores before finishing off the match with a 25-20 win in the third set. CSU got better as the match went on committing eight errors in the opening set, before five in the second and ending with three in the third to boost the team's attacking percentage along the way.
 
Liberty Torres for Cleveland State finished the match with 15 kills and Nia Hall had a dozen. Ella Mihacevich picked up 32 assist and eight digs, trailing Emma Walker and Laken Voss with 20 and 10 digs, respectively. JeriLynn Koehler led the Vikings with a pair of blocks.
 
Milwaukee's offense was led by Alexis Lewis with nine kills and a .438 hitting percentage. Natalie Schmitz had seven kills, while Graves and Madi Malone each added four. Malone also contributed with two service aces, while Johnson added the team's third.
 
Following the match, the team recognized its six seniors, who played at the Klotsche Center for the final time on Saturday. The seniors recognized were Tatum Catalano, Bri Geurts, Graves, Lewis, Czhen Beneby, and Malone.
 
Milwaukee will enter the 2024 Horizon League Volleyball Championship as the second seed and have a bye into the semifinal round on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 5:00 pm (CT). The team will await Cleveland State, Green Bay, or Purdue Fort Wayne, who will play in the quarterfinal round on Friday.
 
"We will get back to work in the gym this week and be ready to go next weekend," Johnson concluded.
 
All matches of the championship will be hosted by Wright State at the CJ McLin Gymnasium, with the championship taking place on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 1:00 p.m. (CT).