MILWAUKEE – After beginning the season at Drake, Milwaukee continues its season-opening road trip with a three-match visit to Schoenecker Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Panthers will matchup against UIC, Montana State, and host St. Paul.

Milwaukee takes on UIC on Thursday at 12:00 p.m. and Montana State on Friday at 12:00 p.m., the Panthers will take on the host Tommies on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. Saturday's match against St. Thomas will be available on the Midco Sports Network (video), while live stats will also be available for all three matches. The links can be found on MKEPanthers.com.

WEEK AT A GLANCE & GAME LINKS
Thursday, Sept. 3 | Milwaukee vs. UIC | St. Paul, Minn. | Schoenecker Arena | 12:00 p.m. | Live Stats
Friday, Sept. 4 | Milwaukee vs. Montana State | St. Paul, Minn. | Schoenecker Arena | 12:00 p.m. | Live Stats
Saturday, Sept. 5 | Milwaukee at St. Thomas | St. Paul, Minn. | Schoenecker Arena | 3:00 p.m. | Video / Live Stats

FIRST SERVE
» Milwaukee heads back to Schoenecker Arena for the first time since St. Thomas' first Division I season in 2023 as the Panthers will take part in the St. Thomas Tournament. In addition to taking on the Tommies, the Panthers will also face Montana State, who was also in St. Paul in 2023. The one difference will be UIC replacing Cal Baptist, who Milwaukee opens the weekend against.
» Longtime Horizon League foes Milwaukee an UIC will meet for the 68th all-time meeting. This will be the fourth different state the Panthers and Flames will meet in, checking off Minnesota in addition to Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio.
» The Panthers will look to move to 2-0 all-time against Montana State, having beaten the Bobcats at the St. Thomas Tournament in 2023. The Bobcats are coached by Milwaukee alumnus Matt Houk, who was also an assistant with the Panthers during the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
» Finally, Milwaukee takes on St. Thomas for the third time in program history and first since the Tommies visited Milwaukee for the 2024 edition of the Panther Invitational. During the previous two meetings, the road team has swept the home side in straight sets.
» Milwaukee traveled to Drake this past weekend and began the season with an 0-3 record, despite the slow start, Kati Goba was named to the Drake All-Tournament Team.

THREE THINGS ABOUT UIC
1. Started the season 0-3 at St. Louis, dropping matches to Buffalo, Lindenwood, and host Billikens
2. Sophomore Ana Petrides had a strong start to her season, hitting .391 to open the season with 31 kills, a pair of aces, and a team-high 15 blocks.
3. UIC has taken on Milwaukee 67 times entering Thursday's match but are just 23-44 against the Panthers.

THREE THINGS ABOUT MONTANA STATE
1. Began the year with a 3-0 record with wins against Delaware, Lafayette, and Marist, the win against host Lafayette was a sweep.
2. Joelie Spelts has 29 kills and is hitting .407, while Elli Tufto has a team-high 34 kills and Elli Esko has 33.
3. This will be the second meeting between Milwaukee and Montana State, the last took place at the 2023 St. Thomas Tournament, a 3-1 Milwaukee win.

THREE THINGS ABOUT ST. THOMAS
1. Went 0-2 to begin the year with a 3-2 loss to Texas Tech and a 3-0 sweep at the hands of host Wyoming.
2. Addie Schmotzer leads the Tommies with 25.5 points entering the weekend, coming on 18 kills and a team-best 11 blocks.
3. This will be the third meeting in the all-time series, with the road team winning each match.

UP NEXT
After a few weekend tournaments in Des Moines, Iowa and St. Paul, Minn., the Panthers will take on Indiana State for a pair of matches on Thursday, Sept. 10 and Friday, Sept. 11.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Following the final matches at Drake on Sunday, Milwaukee's Kati Goba was named to the Drake All-Tournament Team. It was the first athletic honor for Goba, who was also named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team as a junior in 2025.

CAN YOU DIG IT?
Through the team's first three matches, Kati Goba leads all Horizon League athletes with 4.80 digs per set, leading second place Daisy Kluxton of Northern Kentucky (4.43). Goba entered the month of September 34th in Division I, while her 48 digs placed her 70th in the nation.

EARLY SEASON BLOCKING
Milwaukee anticipated a strong blocking game heading into the 2026 season, and thus far in the early season it has been successful. The Panthers rank fourth among Horizon League teams in blocks per set at 1.90 with 19 blocks through 10 sets played.

Northern Kentucky leads the way at 2.43, followed by Green Bay at 2.10, and Purdue Fort Wayne at 1.94.

WHO WAS LEADING TODAY?
Through three matches in 2026, four different Panthers have led the team in kills including Ella Scuetz, Bella Lipski, Josie Noble, and Annie Eschenbach. Emma Duffy has led Milwaukee in assists twice, while Milica Tomic has done so once this year.

Defensively, Lipski twice as well as Eschenbach, Noble, and Schuetz have all led the team in blocks, while Kati Goba has led the team in all of its matches so far.

In 2025, the Panthers had five different players lead the team in kills throughout the season, while they had six different players lead the team in blocks, four players lead in digs, and two lead in assists.

NOT SO BLOCK PARTY
In 2025, the Panthers were 1-13 in matches where they are outblocked by opponents, winning their first match in the team's four-set win over Purdue Fort Wayne on Oct. 31. Milwaukee was also 8-6 with more blocks than their opponents and 2-2 when blocks are equal.

So far in 2026, Milwaukee is 0-2 when being outblocked, and 0-1 when outblocking opponents.

PLAYING A TOUGH EARLY SLATE
This is the fifth time in the last six seasons that Milwaukee has started the season with an 0-3 record, the exception was 2024 when the Panthers started 2-1. Not to worry though, as Milwaukee won the Horizon League regular season in 2021, when this early-season woes streak began.