MILWAUKEE – After winning the opening set of Friday's match against James Madison, the Milwaukee Panthers dropped the next three sets to the Dukes at the Al McGuire Center.
 
Josie Noble led the way for the Panthers with a breakout performance, ending the evening with 12 kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Josie Johnson recorded a season-best 25 assists on the offensive side for Milwaukee.
 
James Madison had a pair of players leading the offense as Kennedy Louisell and Ana Toumazatos tallied 17 kills apiece. The setters for JMU combined for 51 of the team's 59 assists, as Grace Wenrich contributing 27 and Rebecca Watkins adding 24.
 
Milwaukee continued to show improvement, ending the night with 50 kills off 48 assists and tying a season-best with 53 digs, including 22 from Kara Erdmann. The Panthers also had eight blocks, three shy of their season high against South Alabama last weekend.
 
"Today was another opportunity for us to get better," noted head coach Susie Johnson post-match. "Our team needs to continue to use these opportunities to compete throughout the entirety of the match."
 
The Panthers got off to a hot start in the opening set, connecting on 17 kills, including a half-dozen by Noble. Milwaukee had three blocks in the set, with Bella Lipski involved in all three. The defense was able to hold off a late push by the Dukes as Milwaukee took the opening set by a 25-23 score.
 
Milwaukee had just two attacking errors in the second set but was only able to connect on 14 kills to the 19 put down by James Madison. The Dukes defended the Panther attack with 22 digs, while Milwaukee only had 17, including six from Erdmann.
 
The Panthers were unable to get their offense going again in the third and fourth sets, committing a combined 18 attacking errors and hitting just .014 as James Madison won 25-14 and 25-15 to complete the victory.
 
Milwaukee will take on Ball State on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. at the Al McGuire Center as part of the second day of the Marquette Tournament.