ROCHESTER, Mich. – Three Panthers had season-best kill efforts as the Milwaukee volleyball team completed its second reverse sweep of the season upending the Oakland Golden Grizzlies on Friday night in five sets.
 
Milwaukee was led by Madi Malone, who tallied 23 kills while hitting .268 on a season-high 56 swings. Bri Geurts also tallied a season-best with 12 kills and led the Panthers with a .360 hitting percentage. Czhen Beneby also got her conference season off to a strong start with nine kills on 20 attempts.
 
The Panthers hit .208 as a team and were able to come through with a strong defensive effort in the latter three sets to hold Oakland to a meager .037 hitting percentage to finish the night with a cumulative .156 percentage on offense.
 
The Golden Grizzlies took the opening two sets by 25-17 and 25-23 scores, but the Panthers were able to get going with a 26-24 win in the third to avoid the sweep. The Panthers continued to forge their way in the fourth set with a 25-19 set win to tie the match before picking up the win 15-10 in the fifth.
 
Natalie Schmitz chipped in with a dozen kills on offense, while Lakyn Graves added four, and Josie Johnson came up with a pair of clutch kills late in the match. Johnson led Milwaukee with a season-best 28 assists, while fellow setter Milica Tomic added 22 assists and had five of the Panthers' six service aces on the night.
 
Defensively Beneby and Graves had five blocks aside, while Kara Erdmann put together another strong showing with 26 digs. Tomic had Milwaukee's lone double-double on the night with 14 digs to go along with her assist total.
 
Oakland dinked and dunked their way to the early lead using multiple off-speed attacks to find holes in the Panther defense to collect 30 kills over the first two sets. The Golden Grizzlies had just one error in the first set, while hitting .519, and had just five errors in the second to take the early 2-0 lead.
 
Gentry Brown had eight of her 12 kills over the first two sets for Oakland, while Libby Smith had six of her team-best 14 over the first two periods. Tyler Linkhart ended the match with 11 kills including seven over the first two sets.
 
In the third set, Milwaukee trailed 14-9 but went on to erase the early deficit by responding with a 13-4 run, which included blocks by Beneby and Graves to take a 22-18 advantage. Oakland surged back to level the score at 24, but the Panthers were able to put away the set on back-to-back kills by Malone.
  
"Reverse sweeps are always difficult to accomplish," commented head coach Susie Johnson postgame. "Madi [Malone] really helped us flip this match around in that critical third set to get us going."
 
The Panthers had a match-best 16 kills in the third set including six by Malone, and four by Beneby, who also had three blocks in the frame.
 
The pendulum swung back in Milwaukee's favor in the fourth with the Panthers storming ahead to a 17-10 lead capped by a kill from Schmitz. Oakland made a run late in the period to get back within four at 23-19, but Johnson ended the four-point Golden Grizzly rally on a clutch setter dump to get the Panthers to set point. Tomic served an ace to clinch the set and tie the match at two.
 
Milwaukee was first to eight in the fifth set and took a 9-6 lead before winning back service on yet another key setter dump by Johnson to find the floor. The point allowed Tomic to return to the service line and help lead the team to a 5-0 run to take a 14-7 lead. After Oakland scored the next three, Malone put an end to the match with her 23rd kill give the Panthers the victory.
 
Ainsley Guse had nine blocks to lead the Oakland defensive effort, while Emily Wichmann had 31 digs. Setter Rachel Rossman had a double-double with 31 assists and 12 digs on the evening.
 
Milwaukee and Oakland will meet again on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. (CT) at the Athletics Center O'Rena. Oakland announced earlier in the day that the match will be streamed on ESPN+, while live stats of the match will also be available, links for both can be found on MKEPanthers.com.