DES MOINES, Iowa – The Milwaukee volleyball team closed out the weekend with a pair of setbacks Saturday, falling to South Dakota in three sets before dropping a four-set decision against host Drake at the Knapp Center to move to 0-3 on the young season.
Cumulatively on the day,
Josie Noble had 20 kills,
Annie Eschenbach added 17 and
Bella Lipski contributed 14. Noble also had a team-best eight blocks, while Lipski added six.
Emma Duffy had 36 assists over the two matches, while
Milica Tomic picked up 30. Tomic had 19 assists in the second match and added 13 digs for her first double-double of the season.
Kati Goba led the back row with 36 digs on the day, with Tomic and
Ella Schuetz each registering 18.
With 48 digs over the course of the weekend, Goba was named to the All-Tournament Team. Goba had a 4.80 digs per set, while adding 14 assists on offense.
"We have improved each match we played this weekend, and I think that was really evident today," head coach
Susie Johnson said. "This was a big growth weekend for our team, and we saw a lot of things that we can take away and build on moving forward. We battled today and continued to fight, but we came up short. I'm proud of the way our team competed and responded throughout the weekend, and now we have to take what we learned and continue to get better."
Match 2 vs. Drake
It was a back-and-forth battle between two evenly matched programs, with neither side winning a set by more than four points. Drake took the opener, 25-21, before Milwaukee leveled the score with a 25-22 second-set win. The Bulldogs won 25-22 and 25-23 in the final two sets to take the match.
Drake held a slim advantage in team hitting percentage, connecting at a .172 clip to Milwaukee's .168. The Bulldogs also led in kills, 58-52, assists, 58-49, and digs, 75-70. The Panthers held a 10-7 advantage in blocks, with Lipski and Eschenbach recording six apiece and Noble adding four.
Goba had a match-high 22 digs, followed by Schuetz with 15 and Tomic with 13. Tomic also had 19 assists, while Duffy finished with 21.
Eschenbach had a match-high 13 kills, while Lipski had 12 and Schuetz added seven.
The opening set went down to the final five rallies, with Milwaukee tying the score at 21 on a kill by
Kami Stover before the Bulldogs scored the next four points to take the set. The Panthers needed their fifth set point in the second to fend off a late charge, doing so to even the match at a set apiece with a 25-22 win.
Milwaukee led late in the third at 20-19 but was outscored 6-2 down the stretch as the Bulldogs regained momentum. The Panthers battled back late in the fourth, overcoming a 20-17 deficit to even the set at 21, but Drake closed out the match with a 25-23 victory.
Match 1 vs. South Dakota
Earlier in the day, Milwaukee took on South Dakota for the first time since the 2021 season and dropped a three-set decision to the Coyotes.
South Dakota controlled the first set with a 25-8 showing before Milwaukee fought back with competitive sets in the second and third, falling 25-22 and 25-21.
Lipski and Noble had a team-high eight kills apiece, while Duffy and Tomic recorded 15 and 11 assists, respectively.
Defensively, the Panthers were led by Goba with 14 digs, while Noble added four and Stover had three.
After hitting at a negative percentage in the opening set, the Panthers recorded 29 kills over the final two frames.
South Dakota put together a strong service game with six aces to Milwaukee's one, while outblocking the Panthers, 9-3, and holding the advantage in digs, 42-28.
Up Next
Milwaukee will be back on the court next Thursday for its opening match of the St. Thomas Tournament. The Panthers will take on former Horizon League opponent UIC at noon at Schoenecker Arena in St. Paul, Minn.
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