MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee volleyball team is looking to rebound off of a pair of sweeps this past weekend at the hands of the Youngstown State Penguins. The Panthers will have three opportunities this week beginning with a road matchup at Green Bay on Tuesday evening (6:00 p.m.) at the Kress Center, before returning home after a five-match road trip to take on Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
 
All three matches this week will be available on ESPN+, including the two home bouts against the Mastodons with Matt Menzl on the call. Live stats of all three matches will also be available at the links found on MKEPanthers.com.

WEEK AT A GLANCE & GAME LINKS
Tuesday, Oct. 28 | Milwaukee at Green Bay | Kress Center | Green Bay, Wis. | 6:00 p.m. | ESPN+ / Live Stats
Friday, Oct. 31 | Purdue Fort Wayne at Milwaukee | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 6:00 p.m. | ESPN+ / Live Stats | Tickets
Saturday, Nov. 1 | Purdue Fort Wayne at Milwaukee | Klotsche Center | Milwuakee, Wis. | 2:00 p.m. | ESPN+ / Live Stats | Tickets

FIRST SERVE
» Another vital week in Horizon League play for the Milwaukee volleyball team is on tap as the Panthers wrap up their longest road trip of the season with a visit to Green Bay on Tuesday evening at 6:00 p.m., before making their long-awaited return home on Friday and Saturday to square off against the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons at the Klotsche Center.
» Milwaukee comes in off a pair of frustrating three-set losses at Youngstown State this past weekend as the team was swept by the Penguins on both Friday and Saturday.
» Green Bay played at home against Wright State this past weekend and were able to take a set each match against the Raiders but fell in four in both contests.
» Purdue Fort Wayne has dropped six consecutive matches with losses to Oakland, Cleveland State, and Northern Kentucky on three consecutive weekends. The Mastodons will host IU Indy on Tuesday evening before making their way to Milwaukee for the weekend.
» Ella Schuetz led the Panthers this past weekend in Youngstown State, with 17 kills and six service aces. The freshman hit .204 on the week and added a block, with 14 digs defensively. Milica Tomic had a double-double in Saturday's match, finishing the weekend with 22 assists and 17 digs.
» Milwaukee also got 29 assists and 11 digs from Josie Johnson, while Josie Noble had a team-best seven blocks, with Kara Erdmann pacing the way with 23 digs.
» MKE is looking for their 22nd all-time regular season sweep over Green Bay, and looking to improve to 12-0 against the Mas-todons as Horizon League opponents.

LOOKING AT GREEN BAY
Green Bay's strongest asset this season has been its service game, leading the Horizon League at 1.71 aces per set this season. Emma Best leads the way with 28 aces, good enough for fifth-best in the league, while Emma Johnson and Diane Pichelman are both in the top 11 of the league in aces per set.

In addition to the team's service game, Green Bay has been one of the top passing teams in the Horizon with the second-most digs overall this season with 15.93, trailing just Robert Morris. There isn't one Phoenix player that rises above the rest, with Best leading the team at 3.55 per set, which is 10th best in the league. Kayla Birmingham is 11th while Kennedy Schmitz and Emma Johnson are both in the top 20.

The Phoenix hover around the middle of the pack in most other statistical categories within the league. Individually, Pichelman leads the team with 265 kills and a .333 hitting percentage, while Emma Johnson has dished out 789 assists. Up front, Olivia Neumann has a team-best 83 blocks.

When the two teams met earlier this season at the Klotsche Center in Milwaukee, the Panthers took the match in three sets by the scores of 25-15, 25-22, and 26-24, fending off a late Phoenix surge to hold on for the victory.

LOOKING AT PURDUE FORT WAYNE
While it hasn't translated to a middle-of-pack record, the Mastodon offense is sixth in the 10-team league with an average of 14.72 points per set. However, Purdue Fort Wayne is towards the bottom of the league in hitting percentage (8th, .171), service aces per set (10th, 0.88), and digs per set (9th, 14.66).

Purdue Fort Wayne is also susceptible to the block, yielding the league-worst 2.25 blocks per set this season. This week, the Mastodons will face the top hitting percentage team before making their way to Milwaukee, as the Mastodons will square off with the IU Indy Jaguars at home on Tuesday evening. IU Indy has a league-best .241 hitting percentage and have the second-most points in the league.

Riley Rosneck is the team's leader with 330 kills, while Mya Plemons has a team-high .352 hitting percentage with 149 kills this season. Another 6-1 offense that Milwaukee will face this week, Haiden Means is approaching 700 assists through 22 matches with 695 entering play this week. Means also leads PFW with 20 service aces on the year.

Four players have over 150 digs this season including team leader Becky Barrett with 377 this season, Means has 198, while Meg Berkland (184) and Rosneck (168) are both north of 150. Plemons also has a team-best 84 blocks from her middle blocker position for The Dons in 2025.

UP NEXT
Milwaukee will wrap up the home schedule on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8, when the team welcomes the Robert Morris Colonials to the Klotsche Center. This will be RMU's just third trip to Milwaukee since joining the league in 2021. The Panthers are 9-0 all-time against Robert Morris, including a 4-0 record at home and a 5-0 record in Moon Township, including a pair of wins in 2024.

ALL-TIME IN DIGS
1. Lauren Felsing (2006-09): 1,929
2. Becky Peters (2005-08): 1,875
3. Jess Grabowski (2018-21): 1,859
4. Kaley Blake (2020-23): 1,760
5. Myanna Ruiz (2013-16): 1,700
6. Laura Dallenbach (1998-01): 1,600
7. Kara Erdmann (2022-present): 1,496
8. Leanne Felsing (2004-07): 1,329

ALL-TIME IN ASSISTS
1. Katie Schneider (1996-99): 5,276
...
8. Kari Naber (1994-97): 2,308
9. Leane Felsing (2004-07): 2,264
10. Josie Johnson (2022-present): 2,172

In the team's match against Arizona State, Josie Johnson became the 10th player in program history to reach 2,000 career assists.

WHO'S LEADING TODAY?
Milwaukee loves to spread the ball around and have had five different players lead them in kills this season including a team-best 12 matches with the team-high by Natalie Schmitz. Josie Noble has led the team eight times, Bella Lipski four, Ella Schuetz three, and Annie Eschenbach one.

The Panther defense has also had six different players lead the team in blocks at various points throughout the season including a team-best 15 times by Josie Noble. Bella Lipski has led the team in blocking 13 times this season, followed by Annie Eschenbach four times, Emily Hansen twice, and Julia Kellner, Natalie Schmitz and Sam Vanda once each.

Kara Erdmann has led Milwaukee in digs 22 times this year, while Josie Johnson, Ella Schuetz, Milica Tomic each finished a match with the team lead on one occasion. Johnson has also led Milwaukee in assists 14 times, while Milicia Tomic has led the Panthers 11 times this season.

ERDMANN IN THE 60s
With 353 total digs and 4.53 digs per set, Kara Erdmann is currently ranked 56th and 36th in all of Division I volleyball through matches completed on Oct. 22. Last season, Erdmann finished the year second in the nation at both 5.85 digs per set and 719 total digs in 2024.

THE REVENGE SWEEP
Among current Horizon League members, Milwaukee has avenged a 3-0 loss with a 3-0 win against the same opponent just twice in its history. The Panthers accomplished the feat on Oct. 18 with a sweep over Wright State after being swept the evening prior.

The only other instance it has happened against the same Horizon League opponent also came against Wright State during the inaugural Horizon League season (following its transition from the Midwestern Collegiate Conference). The Panthers were swept by Wright State on Sept. 27 in Dayton but bounced back to win 3-0 over the Raiders at home on Oct. 26 of the same season.

FLIPPING THE SCRIPT
Over the last three seasons, Milwaukee and Wright State have gone 3-3 against one another with the Panther and Raiders reversing identical scores against one another. This year Milwaukee bounced back to win 3-0 in their second meeting after falling 3-0 the previous night, while in 2024 the team's exchanged 3-2 wins, and in 2023 the team's swapped 3-1 decisions.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE…
With Milwaukee's win over Wright State on Oct. 18, the Panthers handed the Raiders their first three-set loss in Horizon League play since the 2019 season, when UIC defeated WSU on Oct. 11. Among active Horizon League teams, the last to sweep Wright State was Green Bay on Nov. 4, 2018.

The three-set win for Milwaukee was its first over Wright State since the Panthers did so on Sept. 24, 2016, and was the first time the Black & Gold swept WSU on its home court since Nov. 15, 2014.

NOT SO BLOCK PARTY
The Panthers are 0-12 this season in matches where they are outblocked by opponents, the team is also 3-6 with more blocks than their opponents and 1-2 when blocks are equal.

NOBLE UP FRONT
With 73 blocks on the season, Josie Noble leads Milwaukee with her efforts and is looking to become the first freshman to lead the Panthers in blocks since Ari Miller had 99 blocks her freshman season in 2019.

The freshman record at Milwaukee for blocks in a season is Natalie Schmitting, who had 123 blocks in 2007. There have been five first-year players in program history to record at least 100 digs in their rookie campaigns.

At 0.97 blocks per set entering play this week, Noble is on pace to finish sixth on the freshman list in blocks per set during a season.

JOHNSON REACHES 200 HORIZON LEAGUE WINS
After reaching 300 total coaching wins with Milwaukee in 2024, head coach Susie Johnson reached another milestone in the team's three-set win over Wright State on Oct. 18 as she recorded her 200th Horizon League win as head coach of the Panthers. Chuck Voss, current head coach at Cleveland State enters this week with 222 wins in league play.

WITHIN THE HORIZON
Below are Milwaukee's top performers in each statistical category, as provided by the Horizon League…
Hitting Percentage: Josie Noble (10th, .253 Pct.)
Kills: Natalie Schmitz (15th, 2.70 Kills/Set)
Service Aces: Josie Noble (24th, 0.21 Aces/Set)
Blocks: Josie Noble (7th, 0.97 Blocks/Set)
Digs: Kara Erdmann (4th, 4.53 Digs/Set)
Points: Natalie Schmitz (20th, 2.88 Points/Set)

REACHING THE MARK
Senior Natalie Schmitz became the latest Panther to join the 1,000 kill club with her sixth kill earlier this season against Iowa State. In doing so, Schmitz became the first Panther to reach 1,000 since Madi Malone did so during her junior season in 2023. Former teammate and all-time kills leader Ari Miller reached 1,000 career kills a season prior in 2022 and finished her career with 1,563.

PANTHERS vs. RANKED
Milwaukee played two teams this season that garnered attention from the American Volleyball Coaches Association. The Panthers are played Preseason No. 8 Wisconsin on Sept. 9 before taking on Marquette on Sept. 14, the Golden Eagles are receiving votes in the poll. The schedule also featured preseason No. 13 Arizona State in Tempe on Sept. 21.

The Panthers are 2-39 in all-time meetings against top-25 programs, which includes the losses earlier this season to Wisconsin and Arizona State.