MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee volleyball heads back on the road this week with four matches beginning on Tuesday with a battle at No. 6 Wisconsin at the UW Field House. After taking on the Badgers, the Panthers will return to Milwaukee to take part in a multi-team event hosted by Marquette and will pit MKE against James Madison on Friday, Ball State on Saturday, and the host Golden Eagles on Sunday.
 
The match against Wisconsin will be available on B1G+, while the weekend will conclude with the Marquette match on ESPN+. All four matches this week will have live stats available at the links on MKEPanthers.com.

WEEK AT A GLANCE & GAME LINKS
Tuesday, Sept. 9 | Milwaukee at Wisconsin | UW Field House | Madison, Wis. | 7:00 p.m. | Video / Live Stats | Tickets
Friday, Sept. 12 | Milwaukee vs. James Madison | Al McGuire Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 4:30 p.m. | Live Stats
Saturday, Sept. 13 | Milwaukee vs. Ball State | Al McGuire Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 3:00 p.m. | Live Stats
Sunday, Sept. 14 | Milwaukee at Marquette | Al McGuire Center | Milwaukee, Wis. | 3:00 p.m. | Video / Live Stats | Tickets

FIRST SERVE
» After opening the home season this past weekend, the Panthers stay in state for their next four matches beginning with a visit to Madison on Tuesday before taking part in the four-team event at Marquette this weekend, culminating with a match against the host Golden Eagles on Sunday afternoon.
» The Panthers fell in all three of their matches this weekend to Iowa State, Central Michigan, and South Alabama. The young Panther squad improved throughout the weekend, while senior Natalie Schmitz became the most recent addition to the 1,000 kill club, earning six on Friday against the Cyclones to reach the millennium mark.
» Milwaukee and Wisconsin will meet for the 14th time as Division I foes on Tuesday, with the Badgers earning wins in each of the last nine meetings including last year's visit to the UW Field House.
» The Panthers will take on first-time foe James Madison at the Al McGuire Center on Friday, before locking up with Ball State for the third time in program history and the first time since 2006. Finally, Milwaukee and Marquette will clash on Sunday afternoon with the Panthers looking to snap their 14-game losing skid to the Golden Eagles.

LOOKING AT WISCONSIN
Ranked sixth in this week's AVCA Coaches Poll, the Badgers enter play with a 3-1 record including wins over No. 14 Kansas along with sweeps over UC Davis on Chicago State. Wisconsin was picked third in the Big Ten preseason poll back in July, with Nebraska and defending national champion Penn State ahead of the Badgers.

Carter Booth is back for her third season with the team after earning All-North Region honors a year ago by the AVCA, while Charlie Fuerbringer is in her second year with UW after totaling 1,270 assists as a freshman and earned All-American Accolades. New into the fold is Mimi Colyer, who was also an All-American a season ago while playing for Oregon. All three were named to the Preseason All-Big Ten Team heading into the campaign.

Kelly Sheffield is approaching 600 wins for his career, which includes a 321-69 mark in his 13 seasons at Wisconsin. Sheffield got his head coaching start at UAlbany in 2001 before shifting over to Dayton for five seasons from 2008-12, earning over 100 wins at each stop. This year's team under Sheffield is 16th in the nation in assists per set, and 22nd nationally in kills per set, led by Fuerbringer and Colyer, respectively.

LOOKING AT JAMES MADISON
First-time opponent James Madison will be the second team from the Sun Belt Conference that Milwaukee will see in less than a week after hosting South Alabama on Sunday morning. While South Alabama was third place in the west division, James Madison was picked second in the east division with 77 points and trailing division-favorite Georgia Southern by 10 points.

This year JMU is off to a 2-4 start, winning 2-of-3 this past weekend in their own home tournament. The team posted wins over Bellarmine and Princeton before falling in four sets to Lehigh on Sunday. Lauren Steinbrecher has her team 32nd nationally in assists per set and 26th in kills per set, as the Panthers will face yet another high-powered offense.

Kennedy Louisell is the player to watch for the Dukes, as she is currently second in the nation in total points with 131 on the year. She has 122 kills on the year including three matches with at least 22 kills. The Grand Rapids, Michigan-native previously played at High Point before transferring to JMU this fall. With just 28 errors, Louisell is hitting .347 on the year through six matches. Ayen Nhial has a large presence on the defensive side as the 6-2 middle blocker already has 29 blocks on the year following a freshman season that saw her finish the year with 61.

LOOKING AT BALL STATE
Entering the weekend at 2-4, Ball State will take on Marquette on Friday before facing the Panthers on Saturday. It will be Milwaukee's second-straight Saturday facing off against a foe from the MAC after dropping a three-set decision to Central Michigan a week prior. This will be the third all-time meeting between Milwaukee and Ball State, all taking place at neutral facilities, in 2000 the teams met in Champaign, Ill. while in 2006 they met in Tuscaloosa, Ala. MKE has won four-of-seven all-time sets played between the two programs.

Former Purdue standout Kelli Miller Phillips has led the Ball State program for the past 10 seasons and is coming off a 22-win campaign a season ago. Ball State was picked second in the preseason poll, just one point ahead of Central Michigan and 17 points behind league favorite Bowling Green.

Carson Tyler leads the offense with an average of 4.12 kills per set and is ranked ninth in the nation in total points with 283 and eighth in total kills with 103. Lindsey Green has 171 assists and nine aces to lead the team, while Camryn Wise has a team-best 12 blocks and Sophie Ledbetter has 101 digs.

LOOKING AT MARQUETTE
Under the direction of first year head coach Tom Mendoza, Marquette has entered a new era as Mendoza takes over after leading South Carolina for the past seven seasons. The Golden Eagles are 3-1 to start the year including five-set wins over Hawai'i and Utah State before a sweep over Western Kentucky on Friday evening in their home opener.

MU will take on Ball State and James Madison before taking on the Panthers on Sunday, looking to improve to 25-14 all-time against Milwaukee and earn their 15th-straight win over the Black & Gold. The Golden Eagles were picked second in the Big East Preseason Poll with defending champion Creighton selected to repeat with a unanimous selection.

One of the top blocking teams in the nation in the early-going, Marquette enters the week 35th in the nation in blocks per set with three players in the top-250 including Keira Schmidt with 25 blocks this year. Hattie Bray is back for fourth season with the team and is also among the block leaders with 21 to go along with 43 kills. Natalie Ring leads the offense with 89 kills this year, as both she and Bray were named to the Preseason All-Big East Team.

UP NEXT
It will be another four-match week for the Panthers as the team returns home on Wednesday, Sept. 17 to take on DePaul at 6:00 p.m. The longest trip of the year will follow when Milwaukee heads to Arizona State to take on Grand Canyon (Sept. 19), Pepperdine (Sept. 20), and host Arizona State (Sept. 21). Horizon League play will follow during the final weekend of September.

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

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.