MILWAUKEE – After a week visiting in-state rivals, the Milwaukee volleyball team returns home to the Klotsche Center to take on the DePaul Blue Demons on Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m. Following the home match, the Panthers will leave the state for the first time in the month of September and head to Tempe, Ariz. for a trio of matches against Grand Canyon on Friday, Pepperdine on Saturday, and host Arizona State on Sunday.
 
Wednesday's home match will be available on ESPN+ with Matt Menzl on the call beginning at 6:00 p.m. The pair of neutral site matches will not have a video option available, but the finale against the host Sun Devils will also be available on ESPN+. All four matches this week will have live stats available at the links on MKEPanthers.com.

WEEK AT A GLANCE & GAME LINKS
Wednesday, Sept. 17 | DePaul at Milwaukee | Klotsche Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 6:00 p.m. | ESPN+ / Live Stats | Tickets
Friday, Sept. 19 | Milwaukee vs. Grand Canyon | Desert Financial Arena | Tempe, Ariz. | 5:00 p.m. | Live Stats
Saturday, Sept. 20 | Milwaukee vs. Pepperdine | Desert Financial Arena | Tempe, Ariz. | 4:00 p.m. | Live Stats
Sunday, Sept. 21 | Milwaukee at Arizona State | Desert Financial Arena | Tempe, Ariz. | 3:00 p.m. | ESPN+ / Live Stats

FIRST SERVE
» For the second consecutive week, the Milwaukee volleyball team will have four matches in a week as the Panthers will host the DePaul Blue Demons on Wednesday before visiting Arizona State for a trio of matches against Grand Canyon, Pepperdine, and the host Sun Devils.
» The Panthers lost all four matches this past week, dropping a matchup to No. 6 Wisconsin on Tuesday before falling in a trio against James Madision, Ball State, and host Marquette over the weekend.
» The Panthers will welcome DePaul to the Klotsche Center on Wednesday for a 6:00 p.m. first serve, the matchup will be the 18th all-time meeting for the two sides with MKE owning a 13-4 record vs. DePaul.
» Milwaukee takes on Grand Canyon for the first time ever on Friday and Pepperdine for their first-ever meeting on Saturday. The Panther take on No. 8 Arizona State on Sunday in their first matchup since Aug. 27, 2011, when the Sun Devils won by a 3-1 score.

LOOKING AT DEPAUL
DePaul was selected sixth in the 11-team Big East Conference preseason poll garnering 53 points. The Blue Demons were 21-14 a season ago, including a 3-0 win over Milwaukee on Sept. 19, before reaching the final eight of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship.

This season DePaul is off to a 5-3 start including wins in its last three coming against Missouri State, Central Arkansas, and Chicago State. The team will play a part in the Chicago Cup with UIC and Loyola Chicago this weekend before starting off Big East play. Freshman Eva Hurrle has been a key factor for the team's success this season with 155 digs, good enough for 39th in the nation among defensive players.

The Blue Demons have two players averaging better than three kills per set with Morgan Stewart leading the way with 97 this season, while Kendall Timme has 75 kills in just six of the team's matches, but missed the team's last match against Chicago State. The predominantly young Blue Demon team is led by Marie Zidek, who enters the week with 98 career head coaching victories.

LOOKING AT GRAND CANYON
Newly in the Mountain West Conference after a stint in the Western Athletic Conference, Grand Canyon was tabbed eighth in the 12-team poll. The team is off to a 6-2 start by taking advantage of its home court with a 5-1 record inside Global Credit Union Arena.

The Antelopes will enter the weekend in Tempe coming off a loss to the No. 1 team in the nation, Nebraska, suffering a 3-0 loss to the Cornhuskers on Sept. 13 by 25-12, 25-23, 25-18 scores. Anaelena Ramirez had the strongest showing for Grand Canyon with 12 kills and a .235 hitting percentage, adding to her team-best mark of 92 kills while hitting .191 this year.

Hayden Goodman is a force at the net for GCU with 44 blocks through the team's 28 sets in 2025, Goodman is 11th in the nation in blocks per set at 1.57 and 27th in total blocks this year. Libero Bella Anderson and setter Bella Nunez lead in digs with 91 and 87 respectively, as Nunez splits setting time with Taylor Kubacek for Kenra Potts' Antelope squad.

LOOKING AT PEPPERDINE
Making their way from Malibu to Tempe, Pepperdine will stop off at UC Santa Barbara before heading to the desert. The Waves are 4-3 to start the season including a 2-0 mark in home matches, with one of those wins coming against No. 19 UCLA. Pepperdine was picked second in the West Coast Conference preseason poll garnering two first-place votes and trailing league favorite San Diego by just 13 points.

Three players earned All-WCC Preseason Team accolades including middle blockers Ella Piskorz, Vanessa Polk, and outside hitter Iva Popovic. Piskorz had lived up to the hype and is currently in the top 100 among individual players with 1.24 blocks per set, while libero Laine Briggs leads the team with 88 digs.

Briggs is also tops on the team with 15 service aces, which places her 20th in all of Division I in aces per set at 0.60. Pepperdine's offense under the direction of head coach Scott Wong in his 11th season, can come at teams in a multitude of directions as six players have at least 28 kills this season including Maggie Beauer and Chloe Pravednikov with a team-best 71 kills apiece.

LOOKING AT ARIZONA STATE
In a crowded 15-team Big 12 Conference, Arizona State was tabbed third in the preseason poll behind BYU and Kansas with 168 points. The Sun Devils are off to a 6-2 start this season and have climbed to No. 8 in the AVCA Coaches Poll as announced on Sept. 14.

ASU has quality wins over Northern Iowa (3-0), Penn State (3-1), and a very solid Texas State (3-2) team. The two losses taken by Arizona State have been to Penn State (0-3) and Texas (0-3), with the Sun Devils falling to the Longhorns on Sept. 14 in their most recent contest.

One of the top offenses in the nation, Arizona State is 20th in the country in kills per set at 14.14 and is ninth in the nation in assists per set at 13.46. Leading the nation in both categories is a team Milwaukee already saw earlier this season in Iowa State at 15.35 kills and 14.23 assist per set. The Sun Devils will meet the Cyclones later this season on Oct. 31 in Ames, Iowa.

The defense has been effective for JJ Van Niel's team with the blocking duo of Colby Neal and Ella Lomigora among the national leaders in blocks per set. Faith Frame leads the passing game with 99 digs, whiel Bailey Miller holds the top spot on the team with 96 kills and nine aces. Noemie Glover had 55 kills in three matches but has been out of the lineup since the team's Sept. 1 matchup at Pitt.

UP NEXT
Milwaukee will open Horizon League play with a trio of home matches beginning next weekend against Oakland on Sept. 26-27 before hosting Green Bay on Sept. 30. The Panthers have a total of three matches at home the entire month of October.

NOBLE'S WEEKEND AT MARQUETTE
This past weekend at Marquette, Josie Noble had an impressive showing with a .392 hitting percentage over the three matches with 27 kills including a career-best 12 kills against James Madison. She had two blocks in each match over the weekend amassing 31 points total.

REACHING THE MARK
Senior Natalie Schmitz became the latest Panther to join the 1,000 kill club with her sixth kill on Friday 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.

BELLA'S BREAKOUT
Junior Bella Lipski put together some big time marks this past weekend at the 2025 Panther Invitational with back-to-back 11-kill performances against Central Michigan on Saturday and South Alabama on Sunday. The Milwaukee native entered the season with a match-high of four kills but has since surpassed that mark three times this year. Defensively she already has 13 blocks on the season, one shy of her career-best 13 as a freshman.

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.

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.

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 Volleyball 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 schedule also features preseason No. 13 Arizona State in Tempe on Sept. 21.

The Panthers are 2-38 in all-time meetings against top-25 programs, which includes the loss earlier this season to 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.