MILWAUKEE – For the last time this regular season, Milwaukee will be on the road as the Panthers travel for pair of matches against Robert Morris at the UPMC Events Center in Moon Township, Pa. Friday's contest will begin at 5:00 p.m. (CT) before a Saturday afternoon showdown at 12:00 pm (CT).
 
Live coverage of both matches will be available on ESPN+, while live stats will also be provided by Robert Morris and are available at the links on MKEPanthers.com.
   
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Friday, Nov. 8 | Milwaukee at Robert Morris | UPMC Events Center | Moon Township, Pa. | 5:00 pm
Saturday, Nov. 9 | Milwaukee at Robert Morris | UPMC Events Center | Moon Township, Pa. | 12:00 pm
 
GAME LINKS
ESPN+ (Both Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Live Stats (Both Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage

QUICK HITS
» After a busy 3-0 week that including wins at home against Green Bay and a pair of road wins against Purdue Fort Wayne, Milwaukee heads on the road for the final time this regular season to take on the Robert Morris Colonials on Nov. 8-9.
» Natalie Schmitz led the Panthers with 46 kills in action last week, while Madi Malone had 34. The Panthers outhit their opponents by more than 100 percentage points, with a .266 offensively, while opponents hit .143 against Milwaukee.
» Milwaukee also had their defense clicking against the Phoenix and Mastodons, with better than 18 digs per set, led by Kara Erdmann with 66. Up front, the block was just shy of three per set, with both Lakyn Graves and Alexis Lewis leading the team with 16 apiece, while Rachel Scott added a dozen.
» Robert Morris enters this weekend at 4-10 in league play and looking to keep its playoff hopes alive. The Colonials went 1-2 last week with a win at Youngstown State, while dropping a pair of matches this past weekend at Wright State.
» With one win this weekend, Milwaukee will clinch a first-round bye, and a top-two seed in the upcoming Horizon League Championship. Milwaukee trails Wright State by a game in the standings, as the Raiders will host Purdue Fort Wayne this weekend.
» Last season, Milwaukee won both matches against Robert Morris. MKE took a four-set decision in Moon Township, Pa. on Sept. 29, and swept the Colonials at home on Oct. 28.
» The Panthers are 7-0 all-time against Robert Morris, including a 6-0 mark since RMU joined the Horizon League. MKE has dropped just one set in three matches all-time in contests in Pennsylvania.
» A pair of wins at Robert Morris this weekend will give the Panthers 14 Horizon League wins, the most wins in a conference season since the 2021 season, when the Panthers finished 16-2. Last year, MKE went 13-5 and finished tied for second in the league standings.

LOOKING AT ROBERT MORRIS
Robert Morris is 9-16 this season overall with a 4-10 record in league matches. The Colonials have gone 2-9 over their last 11 matches including a pair of losses at Wright State this past weekend. RMU fell in straight sets to the Raiders on both days, mustering just 74 total points over six sets against WSU.

The Colonials can hang their hat on their defense, as the team is ranked 33rd nationally in digs per set at 16.61 and are 27th in Division I in total digs at 1,561. Jaidan Hockman leads the effort for RMU with 347 digs this season, while Natalie Stpanovich has 294 this year as both are ranked in the top 225. Milwaukee's Kara Erdmann leads the way this season with 576 digs in 2024.

Offensively, the team is hitting .170 on the year, which is ninth out of the 10-team league. The Colonials are currently last in the league in both kills at 11.43 per set, and assists, with 10.68 per set. However, they do accumulate a fair amount of points from their service game, which averages 1.64 aces per set for the third-best mark in the Horizon League.

Robert Morris is also second in the league in blocks with 2.10 per set this season, led by league-leader Azra Eric, who leads the league with 114 blocks and an average of 1.21 per set. Tatum Otolski is also in the top-15 in the Horizon League at 0.72 blocks per set.

UP NEXT
The regular season will close next week as Milwaukee will host Cleveland State for a pair of matches on Nov. 15-16. Friday's match will begin at 6 p.m. as the Panthers will celebrate 'Alumni Day', while Saturday's match will start at 2 p.m., as the Black & Gold will celebrate 'Senior Day'.

SCHMITZ' OUTBURST EARNS WEEKLY HONORS
With 46 kills, including a career-high 19 on Friday 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 576 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 Saturday's win over Purdue Fort Wayne gave her exactly 1,000 with four matches left this regular season.

Her dig total of 576 in 2024 places her fourth on the single-season list and just three behind third place on the single-season listing. 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.

Erdmann's 5.59 digs per set this season is currently on pace to set the single-season record, while she has elevated her game in 2024 to boost her career number to 3.69, which would place her seventh on the career list if that number were to hold through the remainder of the season.

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 4,046.

Against Youngstown State on Oct. 25-26, Malone also crossed into the top-10 all-time in sets played. She now has appeared in 451 career sets played, which is now seventh 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 576 total digs, and third in digs per set at 5.59 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 1,695 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: MADI MALONE EDITION
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 1,179 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 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 27 service aces, which places her 15th 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 14 double-doubles on the season, Madi Malone now has 50 double-doubles for her career.

Malone has 1,441 kills and is now in fourth on the Milwaukee all-time kills list and is 93 behind the third position occupied by Lauren Dallenbach with 1,534.

Her 1,179 digs are also the most among active players, as are her 121 matches played, 451 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.