MILWAUKEE – The 2025 Milwaukee volleyball season gets underway this weekend as the Panthers visit Baxter Arena in Nebraska for a pair of matches against the Omaha Mavericks on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.
 
The Panthers meet the Mavericks for just the second and third times in program history, with the previous meeting coming in 2018. During their previous meeting seven seasons ago, MKE took the first set before Omaha bounced back to win the match, 3-1.
 
The pair of matches in Omaha will be available online through the Summit League Network, while live stats of both matches will also be available on the links found on MKEPanthers.com.
    
WEEK AT A GLANCE & GAME LINKS
Friday, Aug. 28 | Milwaukee at Omaha | Baxter Arena | Omaha, Neb. | 7:00 pm | Video / Live Stats | Tickets
Saturday, Aug. 29 | Milwaukee at Omaha | Baxter Arena | Omaha, Neb. 3:00 pm | Video / Live Stats | Tickets

FIRST SERVE
» Milwaukee opens the 2025 season coming off a second-place finish in the Horizon League standings a season ago as the Panthers finished 13-5 on the regular season.
» Susie Johnson returns for her 19th season as head coach of the Panthers and 29th overall, she boasts the most wins in program history with 305 and has 196 Horizon League wins to her credit.
» Lindsey Vanden Berg is back for her 19th season as the program's top assistant, while Katie Adams is back for her second year on the staff. Raina Terry joins the Panther coaching staff following an All-American career at the University of Illinois for the past five seasons.
» Milwaukee returns nine players from last season's roster and welcomes seven newcomers to the roster of 16. Highlighting the returning crew is the 2024 Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year, Kara Erdmann.
» Last season Erdmann set the program record with 47 digs in a five-set match, she also reached the top-five with 34 digs in a four-set match and 29 in a three-set decision and finished the campaign with a program-best 718 digs and an average of 5.85 per set. She is fifth all-time with 3.93 digs per set in her three seasons with the Panthers.
» Erdmann was also a Horizon League First Team selection with fellow senior Natalie Schmitz back for her fourth year after being named an All-League Second Team honoree in 2024. As a freshman a season ago, Milica Tomic was named to the All-Freshman Team.
» Erdmann and Schmitz excelled in the classroom and were both named to the Horizon League All-Academic Team as well as the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team a season ago.

LOOKING AT OMAHA
The Omaha Mavericks of the Summit League are led by seventh-year head coach Matt Buttermore, who led Omaha to their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023 before a 17-13 campaign in 2024 with a 14-2 mark in league games. The Mavericks reached the Super 16 round of the NIVC Tournament, knocking off Lindenwood in five sets before falling to host DePaul the following evening.

A year ago, Omaha and Milwaukee had one common opponent, the Mavericks swept St. Thomas on both Sept. 28 at home and Nov. 2 in St. Paul. The Panthers hosted St. Thomas on Sept. 14 and were swept by the Tommies as part of the 2024 Panther Invitational.

In terms of offense, only one of the top-five from a season ago returns for Omaha with team leader Kali Jurgensmeier back with her team-best 362 kills from 2024. The team will also be with a new setter as sophomore Julia Owens is expected to take over full-time after 405 assists as a freshman. Owens is also the top server from a year ago, bringing back 31 service aces from her collegiate debut season.

Defensively, the top-four diggers from the Mavericks have all moved on with sophomore Sarah Galligan back as the team's top defender from a year ago. Her 121 digs, along with Owens (113) and Jurgensmeier (109), are tops among returners. Emily Huss was second on the team with 113 blocks, while Jurgensmeier had 94, and will both be a focal point for Milwaukee's offensive attack to avoid.

UP NEXT
The trip to Omaha to open the season will be followed by the return of the Panther Invitational from Sept. 5-7 at the Klotsche Center. Milwaukee will host Iowa State (Friday), Central Michigan (Saturday), and South Alabama (Sunday) in the six-match, three-day event.

The Panthers will not leave the State of Wisconsin again until Sept. 19 when the team visits Arizona State to take on Grand Canyon, Pepperdine, and the host Sun Devils.

THE RETURN OF ERDMANN
The 2024 Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year Kara Erdmann is back for her senior season with the Panthers. On top of earning the league's top defensive honor, she also earned a spot on the All-League First Team. Erdmann finished the year with a program-best 718 digs and 5.85 digs per set, both of which were second-most in all of Division I.

Erdmann also had the most digs in a single-match with 47 on Oct. 19 against Wright State, while she also wrote her name into the top-five dig performances in three-set, four-set, and five-set matches.

ALL-LEAGUE HONORS
In addition to Kara Erdmann, Natalie Schmitz was an All-Horizon League selection as a member of the second team. Schmitz finished her junior season with a career-best 345 kills leaving her just shy of 1,000 for her career with 977 entering 2025. Schmitz also had a career-best 27 service aces and 106 digs last year.

ALL-FRESHMAN HONORS
Putting together an impressive rookie campaign, Milica Tomic became the first Panther to earn a spot on the All-Freshman team since Natalie Schmitz did so in 2022. Tomic had 549 assists in Milwaukee's 6-2 offense for an average of 4.46 assists per set, Tomic's service game was also a key factor in her game with 28 as she returns as the team's top server from 2024.

HITTING THE PORTAL
Milwaukee welcomes a trio of newcomers by way of transfer; Hailey Hutchings joins the Panthers as a graduate student following a four-year beach volleyball career at Grand Canyon University. Junior Carol Herrero comes to the Cream City following a two-year junior college career at Iowa Western, while sophomore Annie Eschenbach makes her way to Milwaukee following a successful campaign at McHenry County College. Eschenbach spent her true freshman season at Xavier University in Cincinnati.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Milwaukee welcomes five true freshmen to the roster this season including Sam Vanda (Geneva, Ill.), Julia Kellner (Racine, Wis.), Braylin Bosetski (De Pere, Wis.), Ella Schuetz (Lake Mills, Wis.) and Josie Noble (Caledonia, Mich.). Noble is the first player in program history to make their way to Milwaukee coming from the State of Michigan.

JOHNSON ENTERS TOP-10
In her final match of the 2024 season, Josie Johnson became just the 10th player in Milwaukee Division I history to reach 1,800 career assists and enters the season just 193 shy of 2,000 for her career. Leanne Felsing is ahead of Johnson with 2,264, while the record is held by Katie Schneider with 5,276 in four seasons from 1996-99.

SUSIE APPROACHING 200
After reaching 300 total coaching wins with Milwaukee in 2024, head coach Susie Johnson boasts a 196-92 record in Horizon League matches and is four away from reaching 200 for her league career. Chuck Voss, current head coach at Cleveland State will enter the season with 220 wins in league play.

TERRY JOINS COACHING STAFF
Earlier this summer, head coach Susie Johnson announced the addition of All-American Raina Terry to the Panther coaching staff beginning in 2025. Terry had a successful five-year career at the University of Illinois and is also playing professionally for the Columbus Fury of Major League Volleyball.

PANTHERS VS. RANKED
Milwaukee is scheduled to two teams that have garnered attention from the American Vol-leyball Coaches Association. The Panthers are slated to play Preseason No. 8 Wisconsin on Sept. 9, before taking on Marquette on Sept. 14, the Golden Eagles are receiving votes in the poll.

The Panthers are 2-37 in all-time meetings against top-25 programs, which includes a pair of losses a season ago at home against Stanford and at Wisconsin.

ON THE HORIZON
Next season, Northern Illinois will join the Horizon League as its 12th full-time member. Not far from Milwaukee, the Panthers and Huskies have met 20 times on the volleyball court with NIU leading the series by a 12-8 margin. However, the Panthers have won three of the last four matchups, including a five-set win over Northern Illinois on Sept. 1, 2024.