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Post by skrapheap on Aug 26, 2023 22:01:45 GMT -6
Milwaukee was picked to finish fourth in the HL Preseason Poll earlier this week. This weekend, they kicked off non-league play at Western Michigan's tournament. They lost all three matches, but played progressively better in each match.
The first match was against last night the host team, which has had a well-regarded volleyball program for a long time. Despite playing poorly on offense, the Panthers won one set. They lost two sets by double-digit margins, and one fairly close set. The Panthers did block well, scoring 13 in total.
This morning, Milwaukee played Northern Iowa, another perennially strong program. Milwaukee was swept, but the scores were closer. The offense improved markedly, finishing the match with a .158 average.
The Panthers concluded tournament play this afternoon against Villanova. Milwaukee took Villanova to five sets, storming back from a deficit to force extended play, falling at last 17-15. The Panthers hit .290 for the match, edged out by Villanova's .291 hitting percentage.
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Post by PantherU on Aug 27, 2023 13:04:13 GMT -6
I miss volleyball as a monster mid-major program.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 27, 2023 22:20:50 GMT -6
I miss volleyball as a monster mid-major program. For awhile they were dominant in league play. Loyola Chicago and Cleveland State were the chief rivals. They have had some good individual years since, but parity in the league has increased dramatically, especially in the last ten years. Recent recruiting classes do seem to be getting better, and the plan, in years where their experience and talent are not clearly superior to the rest of the league, has been to strengthen the team by playing strong opponents in non-league play to help the team win in league play. Wright State has been the top team in the league for the past few years, since they hired a good young coach, who is probably in danger of getting hired away by a major program. Northern Kentucky has had a good run, but for the most part has not been able to win titles. Green Bay has been much improved the past couple of years. Youngstown State has been a good league team but has not been consistent enough down the stretch of the last three or four seasons to win the regular season title or advance far in the tournament; Oakland has had similar experience recently.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Aug 29, 2023 19:01:20 GMT -6
I miss volleyball as a monster mid-major program. Kathy Cunningham days!!!
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 2, 2023 17:55:53 GMT -6
The Panthers got their first two match wins this weekend at the University of St Thomas tournament. (UST recently transitioned to D1 from D3.)
The Panthers lost their opening match on Friday to California Baptist, 3-1. The Panthers won the opening set, which was the high point of the match. Milwaukee hit .279 for the set, followed by two bad sets, hitting -.143 in set two and .000 in set three. For the match the Panthers hit .101; CBU hit .230 after hitting over .300 in the second and third sets. Ari Miller and Natalie Schmitz had 12 kills apiece for Milwaukee.
The second match for the Panthers was an afternoon matchup with Montana State, who was 4-0 heading into play. Milwaukee bounced back in a big way, hitting .314 in a 3-1 win, while holding MSU to .158. Schmitz lead the way with 17 kills (hitting .229), followed by Miller with 15 kills and a .538 hitting percentage and three blocks. Bri Geurts and Madi Malone had 11 kills each. Geurts was very efficient as a hitter, hitting .500; Malone hit a very good .333 for the match, and added 19 digs for the double-double. Josie Johnson had a good match as well, leading the team with 31 assists and adding 13 digs for another double-double.
Milwaukee finished the tournament with a sweep of the host UST Tommies. The Panthers played well as a team on both offense and defense, hitting a season high .321 for the match, and holding the Tommies to .081, the lowest percentage they've allowed so far. Miller had another strong performance, hitting .545 on 13 kills, and made the all-tournament team.
One looks for improvement as the non-league season moves on, and there was definite progress for the Panthers this weekend.
Next up for the Panthers is their home opener, Monday night against Northwestern. Milwaukee has lost all five of the previous matches with the Wildcats, who are 2-2 this season.
Next weekend, Milwaukee travels to play in SIU Edwardsville's tournament, playing Idaho, Western Illinois, and the host team.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 4, 2023 19:29:41 GMT -6
Milwaukee made a bit of program history tonight when they beat Northwestern for the first time ever. They won 3-1.
Natalie Schmitz set a career high with 18 kills. Madi Malone had 10 kills, Ari Miller had 9, and Czhen Beneby had eight kills to go with two blocks. Kaley Blake had 14 assists and two of the Panthers' six aces.
Milwaukee had only three service errors in the match. Northwestern had eight aces but seven errors; the two point difference in aces versus errors was important in a tight match: the margins in the scores of the sets Milwaukee won were two, three, and two points, respectively. The Panthers outdug the Wildcats by one (44-43) and the Wildcats had 11 blocks to only seven for the Panthers. Both teams hit .250; the Panthers on 132 attacks to 144 attacks for the Wildcats.
I tuned in to the broadcast late (it started at 6:00 rather than 7:00), half-expecting the match to be over, since Milwaukee had never before beaten Northwestern. I got to see the end of the third and all of the fourth and final set. I will go back and watch the full match on replay.
After losing four matches to open the season, Milwaukee has won three matches, heading into next weekend's action, at SIU Edwardsville.
Later: Coach Johnson will have a lot of things to work on with the team, but her job must be a little easier after a win. In the sets they won tonight, the Panthers pulled away late, and then had to withstand late rallies. They managed to do so.
The team does seem to be playing better match by match, which is to be expected for a fairly experienced squad. The Panthers have just two freshmen on the roster, four sophomores, and eight juniors, seniors, and graduate students.
One of the bright spots was that Milwaukee won a match on an evening when Ari Miller's play was not at her usual all-league level. Her total kills and hitting percentage were comparatively low.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 8, 2023 16:59:48 GMT -6
The records of Milwaukee’s opponents in this weekend’s SIUE Volleyball tournament suggested that the Panthers were the strongest team: Idaho and host SIU Edwardsville each had one match win, and Western Illinois had none.
As it turned out today, Western Illinois was the more challenging opponent on the first day. Milwaukee swept Idaho in the first match, giving up no more than 16 points in each set. The Panthers hit .459 for the match, their highest team percentage since 2021, and held Idaho to a season-low .056 percentage.
The Panthers needed five sets to put WIU away. After dropping the first set, the Panthers won sets two and three, and reached match point twice in the fourth set twice before the Leathernecks put together three points to win the set and force a fifth set, which the Panthers won 15-10, pulling away late after digging out from an early deficit. WIU hit a respectable .191 for the match, to .249 for the Panthers.
Ari Miller keeps doing Ari Miller things. She had 30 kills in the two matches, hitting at a .489 percentage (she hit .625 in the earlier match but had 11 kills and one error on only 16 attacks).
She was on the all-tournament team and an HL player of the week after last weekends performance. She's off to a good start on another POTW honor after today.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 10, 2023 8:47:52 GMT -6
The Panthers lost their final match at the SIU Edwardsville tournament to the host team, 3-1. The loss evened their non-league record at 5-5. Considering that Milwaukee won one non-league match last year, this is a better performance.
The Panthers start a run of four matches in seven days to finish the non-league season on Tuesday night. Milwaukee will host DePaul, then nationally-ranked Marquette on Thursday night and Air Force on Friday night. The run finishes with a road match at Chicago State the following Tuesday. DePaul and Marquette will be challenges, even at home. I don’t know anything about the Air Force team or Chicago State. Winning two of the four matches seems realistic.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 12, 2023 18:56:18 GMT -6
After writing that last post I looked at the previews on the website and learned that DePaul entered play tonight with a five match win streak and a 5-3 non-conference record.
Milwaukee jumped out to a fast start and won set one 25-15, outhitting DePaul .469 to .059, and outblocking the Blue Demons four to two. The most interesting aspect of the win was that Ari Miller did not lead the way in scoring.
DePaul got more on track in the rest of the match, but the Panthers swept the match, winning 25-20 and 25-22. The Panthers hit .239 for the match and held the Blue Demons to .144. Milwaukee had the advantage at the service line, scoring five aces to three for DePaul (each side had two errors); play at the net was even as each sides had eight blocks. Miller led the way with 12 kills on a .400 hitting percentage, followed by Bri Geurts with nine kills on a .300 hitting percentage. Madi Malone had eight kills and 12 digs, and Czhen Beneby had seven kills and four blocks, and continues to develop into a significant contributor. The win raises the Panthers non-league record to 6-5.
Next up is Marquette on Thursday evening. The Golden Eagles are currently at 2-5, and four of those five losses are against nationally ranked teams. Before coming to the Klotsche on Thursday, Marquette plays top-ranked Wisconsin. Marquette has won the last 12 matches with Milwaukee, so don't think too much about the season record so far; the match will be a challenge.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 13, 2023 21:18:24 GMT -6
Marquette gave Wisconsin a good fight tonight, taking the Badgers to four sets. Two of the Badgers set wins involved extended play: 28-26 in the first and 26-24 in the third.
I expect the Golden Eagles to beat the Panthers in straight sets tomorrow night.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Sept 14, 2023 12:46:26 GMT -6
Marquette gave Wisconsin a good fight tonight, taking the Badgers to four sets. Two of the Badgers set wins involved extended play: 28-26 in the first and 26-24 in the third. I expect the Golden Eagles to beat the Panthers in straight sets tomorrow night. I love Susie as a person, but we have really been spinning our wheels since Kathy.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 14, 2023 17:45:10 GMT -6
Marquette gave Wisconsin a good fight tonight, taking the Badgers to four sets. Two of the Badgers set wins involved extended play: 28-26 in the first and 26-24 in the third. I expect the Golden Eagles to beat the Panthers in straight sets tomorrow night. I love Susie as a person, but we have really been spinning our wheels since Kathy. Not entirely. Only two years ago, the Panthers won the regular season title, finishing just ahead of Wright State, who had an incredible winning streak. Milwaukee lost to eventual champion UIC in the league tournament, but that was by no means the only time a Panthers have won the regular season but lost in the tournament. That has been as true under Susie Johnson, as it was under Kathy Litzau. There is a level of parity in Horizon League Women’s Volleyball, which does not exist in the other women’s sports, in particular Women’s Soccer. Milwaukee has dominated in Women’s Soccer in a way no team or program has done in any other league sport. Even so, winning the regular season in soccer is no guarantee of winning the league tournament and getting into the NCAA tournament. Milwaukee has done much better in Women’s Soccer than in other sports but that is the exception rather than the rule. As league play kicks off in volleyball, I am very interested to see how the season turns out. Milwaukee was predicted to finish fourth in the preseason poll. Of the teams ranked ahead of them, Wright State, which was picked first, has one of the worst non-league records this year. The other two teams picked to finish ahead have a better record than the Panthers in non-league play. I expect the difference in the non-league records to be accounted for in large part by Wright State’s playing a tougher non-league schedule. Milwaukee has made a practice of doing the same, with the expectation that playing a more challenging nonleague schedule will prepare the team to do better in League play.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 14, 2023 18:44:02 GMT -6
When I predicted Marquette would win tonight's match with Milwaukee in straight sets, there were good reasons for the prediction. Marquette was a Top 25 D1 program for a good portion of the season so far. They fell out of the Top 25 largely because they played and lost to a number of other Top 25 teams, leading up to their hosting #1 Wisconsin last night. The Golden Eagles took a set from the Badgers, and forced extra play on two of the sets the Badgers won. That's the sign of a really good team. The Panthers would have as good a chance of beating Marquette as they would have of beating the Badgers right now.
The Panthers have not played nearly so tough a non-league schedule.
So I was surprised to see that the Panthers took one set from Marquette. The Golden Eagle took the first two sets, 25-14 and 25-18. The Panthers took set three 25-17, and as I am typing this, are keeping the fourth set close.
I still expect the Golden Eagles to win the match, which would leave the Panthers at 6-6 in non-league play with two non-league matches remaining. Considering that Milwaukee won a total of one non-league match last season, this is a serious improvement.
I took another look at the non-league records of HL teams, and things are more bunched up than I thought they were. NKU was picked second and are at .500 along with the Panthers. Green Bay was picked second and has the worst non-league record thus far. Wright State was picked first and has the seventh place non-league record.
School Overall Pct. Streak Cleveland State 5-4 .556 L2 Purdue Fort Wayne 5-4 .556 W2 Milwaukee 6-5 .545 W1 IUPUI 5-5 .500 W1 Northern Kentucky 5-5 .500 L1 Oakland 5-5 .500 W1 Wright State 4-6 .400 W1 Youngstown State 4-6 .400 L3 Robert Morris 3-6 .333 L1 Green Bay 2-7 .222 L6
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 16, 2023 1:52:40 GMT -6
Milwaukee closed out the home portion of their non-league season by hosting Air Force, who came in with an 8-1 record. The Falcons' strength is in their block game, as they average about three blocks per set and have had double-digit block totals in multiple matches so far this season.
After dropping the first two sets, the Panthers had to dig deep, but they did, winning three consecutive sets to win the match. Milwaukee is now 2-1 in five set matches this season. The Panthers, after hitting just .077 and .105 in the first two sets, got their offense going, hitting .438 and .415 to even the match at two sets each. Milwaukee outhit Air Force .194 to .185 in the final set to complete the comeback. Maddie Malone was the player of the night for Milwaukee, scoring a match-high 23 kills (on a .327 hitting percentage) with 15 digs for a double-double. Ari Miller had 15 kills on a .324 hitting percentage. Natalie Schmitz had to work for her 10 kills (hitting .051 for the match). Chzen Beneby contributed nine kills and three of the team's seven blocks.
The match win was number 271 for Coach Johnson's Milwaukee head coaching career, which ties her with Kathy Litzau for the program record.
The final match for the non-league portion of the 2023 season is a road match against Chicago State on Tuesday night. The Panthers are 15-0 in their history (13 of 15 victories were sweeps) against Chicago State, but the Cougars enter the match with a 7-3 record, which includes a sweep of the Horizon League's Oakland Golden Grizzlies on Oakland's court. A win would raise the Panthers' non-league record to 8-6. Currently the Panthers are one of four HL teams with a winning record.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 19, 2023 20:10:58 GMT -6
Anyone who expected an easy Panther victory over Chicago State, whom they had beaten in the previous 15 matches (13 of 15 were sweeps) was quickly disabused of the notion tonight. Milwaukee needed five sets to extend their lead in the series to 16 matches, 25-23, 16-25, 25-19, 16-25, and 15-11.
The Cougars came into the match with a record of 7-3, and they have some skilled players. Their top player had 28 kills on the night. Statistically, the Cougars had higher totals in several categories: kills, assists, service aces, and digs. The Panthers did better at blocking, and had ten fewer hitting errors, and that was enough to win the match.
Ari Miller led the way for Milwaukee, seizing control of the final set, scoring eight of the Panthers' points on five kills, a solo block and two block assists. She had 17 kills in total to lead the team, and had two solo blocks and six block assists. Miller hit .405 for the evening. Madi Malone had 13 kills, but hit only .081. The team had 14 blocks for the evening, and their nine service aces were offset by eleven errors.
The Panthers finished non-league play with a respectable 8-6 record. The win gives Susie Johnson 272 wins as the Panthers’ head coach, which is the school D1 record.
Eight other Horizon League teams started league play tonight. There were, so far as I can tell, no surprises in the results: Wright State, Northern Kentucky, Oakland and Cleveland State all won.
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