MILWAUKEE – After a 2-1 start the season, the Milwaukee volleyball team will head to Texas for three matches at Southern Methodist University. The Panthers will take on host SMU on Thursday, followed by matches against Loyola Marymount on Friday, and Weber State on Saturday.
 
The match against SMU will be available on ESPN+, while all three matches of the multi-team event will have live stats available at the links on MKEPanthers.com.
  
WEEK AT A GLANCE
Thursday, Sept. 5 | Milwaukee at RV Southern Methodist | Moody Coliseum | Dallas, Texas | 5:00 pm
Friday, Sept. 6 | Milwaukee vs. Loyola Marymount | Moody Coliseum | Dallas, Texas | 3:00 pm
Saturday, Sept. 7 | Milwaukee vs. Weber State | Moody Coliseum | Dallas, Texas | 11:00 am
 
GAME LINKS
ESPN+ (SMU Match Only): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Live Stats (All Matches): mkepanthers.com/coverage

QUICK HITS
» After starting the season 2-1, the Milwaukee volleyball team heads on the road for a trio of matches in Dallas at the Southern Methodist Doubletree Classic at Moody Coliseum. The Panthers will open competition against host SMU before taking on Loyola Marymount on Friday, and Weber State on Saturday.
» This will be Milwaukee's first trip to the 'Lone Star State' since the 2004 season, when the Panthers also played in a four-team event hosted by SMU. The Panthers dropped a four-set match against the host Mustangs while also dropping three-set decisions to both LSU and Miami (Fla.) in mid-September.
» In Milwaukee's previous matchup against SMU, the Panthers fell 30-21, 27-30, 30-15, and 30-26. Karen Fruit had a match-high 17 kills for MKE, while Lauren Felsing added a dozen, but Milwaukee as a team hit just .082 as a team. SMU ended the match hitting .204 as a team and were led by Jacky Niederstadt with 15 kills for the Mustangs
» For the second consecutive week, Milwaukee will be playing a team that has received national recognition by the AVCA as SMU is currently receiving votes in the September 2 poll. The Panthers began the season with No. 5 Stanford, who remained at No. 5 in this week's poll.
» Milwaukee will also take on Loyola Marymount and Weber State at the Doubletree Classic this weekend, both are first time foes for the Black & Gold. LMU and Weber State join Stanford as the three first-time opponents for Milwaukee in 2024.

LOOKING AT SMU
Coming off one of, if not the largest win, in program history, the Mustangs enter at 2-1 on the season including an upset over No. 2 Nebraska on Tuesday evening, sweeping the Cornhuskers 25-23, 25-21, and 25-18. The loss was Nebraska's first sweep at the hands of an unranked opponent since 2014, while the win was SMU's first win over a ranked opponent since knocking off No. 14 Baylor in 2023.

Head coach Sam Erger earned her 50th win in two-plus seasons with SMU on Tuesday and was named American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year a season ago. Erger was previously an assistant coach at Baylor and played collegiately at Bowling Green, graduating in 2011.

Through the first week of the season, SMU has been led by Maya Tabron with 38 kills, Naya Shime with 35, and Jamison Wheeler with 32 for a team that has combined offensively for 144 kills and is hitting .248 on the season. SMU's service game was key in the upset win over Nebraska, as the Mustangs have been led on the service line by Natalie Foster with 10 aces over the team's first 12 sets. The team has also been stout defensively and enter Thursday's match as 20th in Division I with 35 blocks on the season and are 26th nationally in blocks per set (2.92).

LOOKING AT LMU
Loyola Marymount was receiving votes in the 2024 preseason poll by the AVCA and will be yet another tall task for Milwaukee. However, LMU is coming off a trip to Western Michigan (where Milwaukee started the 2023 season), and fell against both host Western Michigan and Loyola Chicago, but were able to win a four-set decision against Clemson.

Sophia Meyers had a strong showing against host Western Michigan in the opener with 22 kills and leads the team with 51 through the first three matches of the young season. Meyers is among the national leaders in points per set at 5.55 this season, which is good enough for 15th national, while also leading the West Coast Conference. The Lions have also out-served their competition with a 17-12 advantage in service aces, including a team-best four from setter Mia Schafer, who also has a team-best 68 assists on the year.

Head coach Trent Kersten enters his second season as head coach of the Lions and is looking to lead LMU back to a 20-win season as he finished 20-6 a season ago, including an impressive 13-3 showing in league play. After building up San Jose State in three seasons with 47 wins over his time in Northern California, Kersten moved down the coast to LMU and looks to contend with the Lions in his second season.

LOOKING AT WEBER STATE
After splitting their first two matches of the season with a win against Utah Tech and a loss to Denver, Weber State heads from Ogden, Utah to Dallas for the trio of matches. Under the direction of 10th year head coach Jeremiah Larson, the BYU grad has had his share of success with at least 17 wins in each of his last six seasons including 21 a year ago.

Through two matches, Weber State has 90 kills versus 95 of their opponents, while hitting just .168 on the year. The team has put together 17 service aces while yielding just 10 defensively, as they have amassed 102 digs and 20 blocks as well on the defensive side of the ball. Rolling with a short rotation, Ashley Gneiting is the player to watch in the early stages of the match, as she leads the Wildcasts with 24 kills, while Saane Munyer hits at a high efficiency when set the ball, as Munyer has a .357 hitting percentage with 13 kills.

Finding the pair of hitters has been setter Kate Payne with 67 assists for an average of 7.44 assists per set this season. Liana Woodley has been a force up front in the early-going on the defensive side of the ball with 1.11 blocks per set, leading the team with 10 on the season. In addition to being the team's top setter, Payne also leads Weber State with 25 digs, followed closely by Marly Pratt with 21.

UP NEXT
Milwaukee head's back to Wisconsin for the first time since the season opener and will begin next week with a trip to the UW Field House and nationally ranked Wisconsin. The Badgers are off to a slow start at 0-3 this season, with all three losses coming to teams in the top-six of the AVCA poll. After the 90 minute drive to Madison, the Panthers return home to host the Panther Invitational, which will include matches with Illinois State, St. Thomas, and Iowa.

DOUBLE THE DOUBLE-DOUBLE IN ILLINOIS
Playing in her home state of Illinois, senior Madi Malone collected a pair of double-doubles including 18 kills and 15 digs over four sets against Western Illinois, while totaling 11 kills and 16 digs against host Norther Illinois.

With her pair of double-doubles, Malone now has 38 for her career. Malone has 1,142 kills and is four shy of breaking into the top-10 on the Milwaukee all-time kills list currently occupied by Leanne Felsing with 1,146. Her 938 digs is also the most among active players, as are her 97 matches played, 360 sets played, and 64 service aces.

ERDMANN'S NEW HIGH
Entering her junior season with a career high of 28 digs from her freshman season against Cleveland State in postseason play, Kara Erdmann set a new career-best with 31 digs against Western Illinois during the team's four-set win over the Leathernecks.

Erdmann enters play this weekend 20th in Division I with her 61 digs on the season, while she is 27th in Division I in digs per set at 5.08.

IN A FLURRY
Milwaukee has been attacking opponents from all angles with the Panthers accumulating 40.83 attacking attempts per set through three contests thus far. That number is currently sixth in all of Division I, but is still second in the Horizon League as Milwaukee trails Wright State, who is just ahead of Milwaukee at 40.89.

Panther opponent Western Illinois leads the nation at 54.38 attacking attempts per set, while another Milwaukee opponent, Northern Illinois is second in the nation at 44.89 attacks per set.

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.

500 CAREER MATCHES
On Sunday, September 1, Susie Johnson coached her 500th career match as the head coach of the Panthers becoming the first head coach in Milwaukee Division I history to reach that milestone. Tom Pleyte, who coached the team from 1978 and through Milwaukee's first three Division I seasons from 1990-92, is the program's all-time leader having served as head coach for 807 matches. Kathy Litzau, who followed Pleyte and preceded Johnson led Milwaukee 423 times.

Last season, Johnson earned her 272nd head coaching victory to become the department's all-time leader in wins in Division I history. She also recorded her 500th win as a Panther, earning 226 victories in 10 seasons as an assistant, while earning her 274th win as head coach against Purdue Fort Wayne on September 23.

NATIONAL RANKING
Milwaukee finished the regular season second in the nation with 1,608 kills, and after its postseason match against Cleveland State in the Horizon League First Round, added to its total to finish the year with 1,661, which was 22nd most in all of Division I in 2023 following the conclusion of the NCAA Championship.

The Panthers also finished 2023 with 1,546 assists, which was also 22nd in Division I, while the team finished 52nd in total blocks with 279.5. Both of those numbers were tops in the Horizon League. With a .255 team hitting percentage, Milwaukee led the Horizon League and finished the year 39th among 332 DI programs.

NEW CREW
Milwaukee welcomes six newcomers to the roster in 2024, including two transfers and four true freshmen.

Making their way to Milwaukee from Memphis is middle blocker Alexis Lewis, who played in 38 matches with the Tigers over three seasons. Also transferring to the Black & Gold is Hallie Cook, who after playing a multitude of positions at UNC Greensboro, will look to settle into a defensive specialist/libero role with the Panthers.

The four freshmen represent three different states including a pair from Wisconsin, as Emily Hansen hails from Mayville, and Jenna Soerens comes from Oostburg. Milica Tomic is a setter from Dyer, Indiana, while Gabby Wire comes north from her home state of Illinois, where she played high school volleyball at Crystal Lake South in the Chicago suburbs.

TOUGH SLATE ON TAP
Milwaukee is scheduled to play a tough slate of competition in 2024 including six teams that qualified for the 2023 NCAA Championship. The list includes Stanford (Aug. 30), Southern Methodist (Sept. 5), Weber State (Sept. 8), Wisconsin (Sept. 10), Wright State (Oct. 18-19), and Marquette (Oct. 22).

The 2024 American Volleyball Coaches Association Preseason Poll included Wisconsin (No. 3), Stanford (No. 5), Marquette (No. 24), as well as Southern Methodist and Loyola Marymount, who were receiving votes in the preseason tally.

PANTHERS VS. RANKED
In 38 meetings all-time against top-25 opponents, the Panthers have wins at home against No. 9 Wisconsin (Sept. 1, 1999) and at home against No. 18 Iowa State (Aug. 29, 2008).

Milwaukee is currently scheduled to play two opponents in the top-10 of the AVCA poll, the last time the Panthers played a top-10 team was when they played No. 4 Florida on Sept. 21, 2013. The instance against Florida was the only time Milwaukee had played a top-five team before playing Stanford to open the season.

WELCOME TO THE ATLANTIC COAST?
Milwaukee will be playing two programs that changed their conference this past summer, including Stanford on Aug. 30, and Southern Methodist on Sept. 5. Despite playing in Stanford, California and Dallas, Texas, respectively the pair join the Atlantic Coast Conference in what will be one of two leagues to feature 18 teams in 2024-25 in addition to the Big Ten Conference.

Among the 18 teams that currently comprise the Atlantic Coast Conference, Milwaukee currently has an 8-12 overall record. The Panthers are 2-0 all time against Boston College and Syracuse, 2-2 against Virginia Tech, 1-2 against Georgia Tech, 1-3 against Notre Dame, and have identical 0-1 marks against Duke, Miami, NC State, Stanford, and Southern Methodist.

PRESEASON POLL
After finishing the 2023 Horizon League schedule in a tie for second place with a 13-5 record, the Panthers were selected to finish third in the 2024 preseason poll, amassing 73 points and finishing just ahead of Green Bay with 71 points.

Wright State was selected to repeat as champions of the Horizon League with nine first-place votes and 99 points overall, while Northern Kentucky received the final first-place vote and recorded 85 points. Cleveland State took fifth with 63 points, while Oakland was projected to take the final playoff berth with 53 points.