DEKALB, Ill. – Three Panthers finished the match with double digits in kills as the Milwaukee volleyball team pulled out a closely-contested five-set victory over the Northern Illinois Huskies on Sunday afternoon.
 
Leading the way for Milwaukee was Natalie Schmitz with 17 kills, while Madi Malone had 11, and Lakyn Graves put down 10. The duo of Josie Johnson and Milica Tomic had 20 and 22 assists to help aid the offensive output that resulted in a .213 hitting percentage, a team best thus far through three matches.
 
"That was a tough match to win," commented head coach Susie Johnson. "Northern Illinois had a great day today … they played really well but our team responded and showed a lot of resilience and competitiveness."
 
Beyond the offensive effort, Milwaukee had a strong defensive performance with 77 digs and six more blocks. Kara Erdmann led with 19 digs, along with 16 for Malone and 10 for Kati Goba. Tomic added nine digs with Johnson chipping in with eight.  
 
"I think we were very balanced as a team again," Johnson concluded. "This was a really good test for us and coming through with the win was excellent."
 
Milwaukee dropped the opening set in a very close opening period as the set was tied at 22 before NIU took the final three points to take the early 1-0 lead.
 
In the second, the two sides were even at 18 through the first 36 points before the Panthers went on their best run of the season with seven unanswered including three kills from Schmitz, a pair of blocks from Scott and one by Graves to draw even at one set apiece.
 
Northern Illinois led by as many as 11 in the third set at 20-9 but were able to hold off a late Panther surge as the Panthers outscored the Huskies 10-5 through the latter stages but it was much to overcome as NIU won the third set, 25-19.
 
The fourth set proved to be yet another demonstration of the evenness of the match, including a stretch of 11 points that alternated possession between the two sides. The Panthers held a 20-17 lead late and scored five of the final seven points, punctuated by a Schmitz kill to send the match to the fifth.
 
The Huskies opened with the first three points in the fifth before kills by Schmitz, Alexis Lewis and an ace by Graves knotted the score. A five-point rally by MKE put the Panthers up 12-9 before NIU got back within one. The Panthers did just enough to hold off the push by Northern Illinois as Schmitz got one final kill to give Milwaukee the 15-13 win.
 
Bri Geurts added to the effort with eight kills and six digs, while Lewis chipped in with seven kills.
 
Nazli Guvener had 21 kills, while Ava Grevengoed had a double-double with 15 kills and 15 digs. Charli Atiemo had 14 kills, while Sophie Hurt and Ella Strausberger combined for 38 of the team's 47 assists. Crew Hoffmeier led the defense with 26 digs.
 
After three matches in three days, the Panthers will be off until Thursday, September 5, when the team takes on Southern Methodist in Dallas, Texas at 5:00 p.m.
 
The Mustangs were receiving votes in the AVCA preseason poll and are 1-1 to start the season, splitting their weekend in Hawai'i against host Hawai'i (3-2 Loss) and San Diego (3-1 Win), who were both receiving votes as well in the poll.