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Post by skrapheap on Apr 18, 2017 12:25:53 GMT -6
mkepanthers.com/news/2017/4/13/womens-volleyball-four-standouts-to-join-milwaukee-volleyball.aspxThe incoming players are intriguing. Two are international, one from Serbia by way of a junior college in Florida and a freshman coming from Germany. Kartalovic, the Serbian, is 6'4" tall. If Caitlin Schultz (also 6'4") is able to be healthier, Karatovic would be a great supplement. Schultz, when healthy, was a go-to player on offense. If Schultz is not healthy, Kartalovic could be a replacement. The transfer in the group, Mahoney, played high school vball with 2016 First team All-League team member and Co-Freshman of the Year Bridget Wallenberger. Mahony transferred in January, so she was able to be part of the team's Spring program. The other three sound promising as well. Coach Johnson said Heilemann reminds her of four-year stand-out and former Assistant Coach Rachel Neuberger (no pressure, there ). Miller and Mongan come from good high school programs. The Panthers should return young but experienced players from last year, Wallenberger, Kylie Wilks, and setter Jenn Dore (Dore and Wilks were on the All-Freshman team with Wallenberger) among them, to go with Seniors Jess Kalous and Mykie Olson. The incoming class will have some time to get used to D1 vball, but the Staff will not hesitate to play them if the newcomers show signs of being ready right away.
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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on Jun 7, 2017 11:16:29 GMT -6
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Post by skrapheap on Jun 8, 2017 15:59:52 GMT -6
As usual, the team will be challenged by the non-league schedule.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 15, 2017 9:39:00 GMT -6
Practice has begun, and the roster for 2017 has made its appearance on the website: mkepanthers.com/roster.aspx?path=wvballIt's still a youthful roster: two Seniors (Jess Kalous and Mykie Olsen), two Juniors (twin towers Caitlin Schultz and Sara Kartalovic), five Sophomores (Louise Kiekhofer, Jenn Dore, Lexie Uselding, Bridget Wallenberger, and Kylie Wilks) and four Freshmen (Jenna Miller, Makenzie Mroczenski, Carmen Heilmann and Kailyn Mongan). A couple of players announced as signed are not showing up on the roster yet: Katie Mahoney and Jenna Miller. i don't know why, or what that means. It will be interesting to see what the coaches poll predicts for the Panthers in 2017.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 17, 2017 13:53:03 GMT -6
The is the revised volleyball schedule, after the addition of IUPUI to the league: mkepanthers.com/schedule.aspx?path=wvballNo long road trips this year, which is a plus. The schedule pretty much alternates between hosting two matches and traveling for two matches, with single matches away and home with Green Bay, the Panthers' travel partner for VB. But that also means no long home stand, either.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 21, 2017 11:28:30 GMT -6
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 25, 2017 12:16:58 GMT -6
For Match 1, the starters were: Jenn Dore, Jess Kalous, Sara Kartalovic, Lexie Uselding, Bridget Wallenberger, Kylie Wilks, and Mykie Olson at libero. This is a highly veteran lineup, with Kartalovic the only player who wasn't on the court for Milwaukee last year, and she is a JuCo transfer. Caitlin Schultz rotated in quickly.
Olson gets the early nod to take over at libero this year. She is one if just two seniors this season.
South Dakota State, the opponent in the match, won five matches all last year and graduated six or seven seniors, so they are as young or younger than Milwaukee.
The Panthers got out to any early lead which they maintained, but could not withstand a Jackrabbit surge, and lost the first set 23-25.
SDSU got out to an early lead in set two, which the Panthers countered, but the Jackrabbits pulled into a tie at 10-all. The play was back and forth fron there, as both teams were fairly successful in running their offenses. SDSU fonally managed to string together three points to take a lead at 19-17 and the Panthers called a timeout. The Panthers traded points but called another timeout when the Jackrabbit lead got to 22-19. The Panthers could not put the run they needed together, and the Jackrabbits took a 2-0 lead to the break.
Schultz had 13 kills and Wallenberger 10 through the two sets. Errors of all sorts were the bugaboo: the Panthers were outhit .286 to .226 and had 14 hitting errors to 9 for the Jackrabbits.
SDSU jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead which they maintained and expanded to 9-4 and 10-5 and the first Panther timeout. SDSU continued to control play, and the Panthers second timeout came with the score at 14-8. The Panthers dug themselves partially from a deficit that grew to six, but could not get closer than 20-17. A last ditch run fought off two of four Jackrabbit match points, but SDSU got the last point and swept the match.
The Panthers had nine more hiiting errors and were outblocked 10-7, leading to being outhit .307 to .208. Wilks had 12 kills to join Schultz (18) and Wallenberger (13) in double digits. Kartalovic, Uselding and Kalous were the only other Panthers with kills.
Next up is an evening matchup with Idaho State, Coach Johnson's alma mater, where she had a hall-of-fame career as a setter. Idaho State also enters the match at 0-1, having lost in five sets to Virginia Tech.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 28, 2017 18:42:25 GMT -6
The Panthers finished their home tournament 1-2. After being swept by South Dakota State, the Panthers split a pair of five-set matches, beating Idaho State and losing to Virginia Tech. Tech finished the tournament 3-0, SD State and Idaho State finished 1-2 with Milwaukee.
The Panthers had a quick turnaround, facing Northern Illinois University on Monday night. The Panther starters were: Jenn Dore, Jess Kalous, Kailyn Mongan, Caitlin Schultz, Bridget Wallenberger, Kylie Wilks, and Mykie Olsen at libero.
Milwaukee dominated the first set, winning 25-12. The second set was closer, but the Panthers led throughout, finishing by scoring six of the last eight points to close out the set and take a 2-0 sets lead into the break. The Panthers serve and block games were strong in the first two sets. The Panthers had a 4-1 lead in blocks and a 6-0 lead in service aces.
The Huskies got off to a good start in set three, scoring the first three points, and getting to a 4-2 lead. The Panthers then reasserted themselves, pulling into a tie at 5-all, and then taking a 6-5 lead. After NIU tied the score, the Panthers moved into a two point lead, which they maintained through a score of 14-12. Milwaukee pulled out to a four point lead on two occasions, forcing Husky timeouts. NIU shortened the lead after their timeouts, and the Panthers took their first timeout when the lead diminished to 19-16. NIU got the lead down to one at 19-20, but the Panthers pushed the lead back to four match points at 24-20. NIU scored two more points before the Panthers closed out the match on a kill by Caitlin Schultz, her 13th of the match, to finish a long rally.
The Panthers hit .343. for the match, finishing with an advantage in service aces, digs, and blocks. Wilks added nine kills, Wallenberger eight, and Makenzie Mrocynski added five, to Schultz's total. Dore had another double-double with 34 assists and 10 digs.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 2, 2017 14:04:14 GMT -6
Milwaukee took a 2-2 season record into the first day of Loyola's tournament, and picked up two victories, besting Fairfield in five sets in the opening match of the tournament, and then closing out the evening with a sweep of Samford.
Fairfield took the first set and had a 2-1 lead in sets going into set four, but the Panthers proved themselves to be resilient and forced a fifth set, which they won fairly easily.
It may have been due to the lengthy wait between matches, or a young team with new players learning to play together, but the sweep of Samford was not quite as dominant a performance as you might think. While the Panthers played well for most of the three sets, they aklowed Samford to go on some sustained runs. After Milwaukee had built an eight point lead at 19-11, Samford put together a run that had them at set point. The Panthers rallied to tie the score, and finally finshed the set 27-25. Samford had runs in the other two sets as well, but Milwaukee held on in both cases to win and cone away with the sweep.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 11, 2017 11:35:19 GMT -6
The Panthers went back down to Chicago last this past weekend, this time for a tournament hosted by DePaul University, featuring Northwestern University and Army (West Point) in addition to the host.
The Panthers won two of three matches. They played Northwestern first, and were swept in three sets, 25-16, 25-23 and 25-22. The Panthers played much better in sets two and three, but in all three sets gave up late scoring runs to the Wildcats, which led to the sweep. The Wildcat scored the last four points in set two to erase a 23-21 Panther lead. Jess Kalous, Carmen Heilemann, Cailtyn Schultz and Bridget Wallenberger all had seven kills; no one else managed more than three.
The Panthers rebounded nicely in the second match, sweeping DePaul 25-21, 25-20, and 25-18. Kylie Wilks came back from a two kill performance vs. Northwestern to lead the Panthers with 13 kills in this match, and racked up 11 digs for a double-double. Heilemann and Schultz also finished in double-digits in kills with 10, and Wallenberger added eight. Mykie Olson, who earned a spot on the All-Tournament team, led the Panthers with 16 digs. DePaul had an early lead in set one, but the Panthers scored five consecutive points to take an 11-8 lead. The Blue Demons countered with a five-point run of their own to re-take the lead, but the Panthers retook the lead with a pair of four-point runs, the second run giving them a 23-19 lead. DePaul scored the first four points of set two, but the Panthers countered with a six-point run, and never trailed after that. The Panthers had five set points at 24-19, and gave up only one before finishing the win. DePaul played Milwaukee evenly in the first half of the third set, to a 12-12 tie, but the Panthers outscored them 13-6 to finish the set and earn the sweep. Match point came on a service ace by Olson, the last of her four aces in the match.
Army was the opponent for the final match, which the Panthers won 3-1. The first set, won by Army, was played fairly even early, until a scoring run put the Black Knights into an 11-7 lead. A further run pushed the lead to 16-8, and though the Panthers played better from there, the lead was too much to overcome. The next three sets were different. Set two was back and forth throughout. The score was last tied at 23-all, and the Panthers then scored twice to win the set. In set three, the Black Knights fought off six set points to tie the score at 24-all and force extra play. Army fought off two more set points before getting their own first set point at 27-26. The Panthers scored consecutive points to fight off that set point and get to within one of winning, but Black Knights were equal to the challenge, getting a final set point at 31-30, when the Panthers scored three points to win the set, 33-31. The fourth set saw continued back-and-forth play early, but the Panthers found their stride late and scored nine of the final 10 points to win the set going away, and finish the match. The Panthers again got balanced scoring: Wallenberger had a match-high 19 kills, Schultz had 16, Wilks added 15 and Kalous added 12. Olson added a match-high 20 digs and an ace.
At the end of the weekend, the Panthers had the best non-league record in the Horizon League at 7-3.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 29, 2017 18:58:21 GMT -6
The Panthers traveled to Green Bay tonight to play the 2-0 Phoenix, who are tied for first place. Milwaukee entered the evening 8-8 overall and 1-1 in league play.
The Panthers did little to disprove the expectations of the pre-season poll, which placed them fourth. Green Bay swept the match, 25-22, 29-27, 25-13.
The Panthers were unable to do better than trade points for most of the match, while the Phoenix were able to put together more scoring runs than the Panthers could manage. Early Green Bay scoring runs left the Panthers in holes they could not pull themselves out of. The Panthers put together a late run in the first set to keep the score respectable. In set two, Milwaukee rallied late to force extra play, and actually had the lead late on two occasions, even getting to set point at 26-25, but could not finish the set. In the third set, the Panthers seemed to wilt entirely, and never threatened the Phoenix at all, except for a three point run which cut the Phoenix lead to 9-7. Green Bay then put the set away with a six point run, and then a four point run which pushed the score to 23-11.
Bridget Wallenberger and Caitlin Schultz had 12 and 1l kills for the match. No other Panther had more than six. The Panthers hit a decent .193 for the match, but the Phoenix hit .346. The Panthers had nine blocks to eight for the Phoenix, but Green Bay racked up a large number of points on quick sets to hard kills, which the Panthers had no way to stop.
Next up for the Panthers is a 2 pm home match on Sunday with UIC, who was the lone idle squad tonight. The Flames are off to an 2-0 start in league play and 11-4 overall. Last year, the Flames had a similar hot start in non-league play, but floundered in league play. This season, UIC's wins include a 3-1 home win against defending champion Cleveland State.
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Post by skrapheap on Oct 16, 2017 15:54:59 GMT -6
After losing five of their first six league matches, the Panthera went into the weekend looking for signs of improvement. They were facing the only team below them in the standings, Youngstown State, and a three-win Wright State squad that had beaten Cleveland State in Cleveland and UIC.
Saturday's match resulted in the Panthers' first sweep since September 9th against DePaul, and doubled their league win total. The Panthers won the first two sets easily (25-19 and 25-15), and held on to win the third set (25-23). Milwaukee was led by Bridget Wallenberger with 15 kills and Kylie Wilks with double-double of 11 kills and 19 digs. Jess Kalous added 10 kills with a .318 hitting percentage. The Panthers dominated most statistical categories. One of the interesting points of the match was Coach Johnson's decision to sub in Jenna Miller, who had played a scant few sets to date in the season, for Caitlin Schultz in the first set. Miller finished the match, scoring four kills on 11 attempts with no hitting errors (a .364 hitting percentage). Coach Johnson explained her reasoning in an interview with Matt Menzel that aired on Sunday.
The Panthers hoped to keep the momentum going on Sunday, and the first set was a continuation of their play on Saturday. The rest of the match was more of a struggle, with the Panthers winning in five sets, 25-14, 29-27, 21-25, 23-25, and 15-8.
Set one saw Milwaukee get out to an early 5-2 on a four point run, and then score five in a row to open a 13-7 lead. Wilks had the first two kills of the set, and five total, including the winner. Louise Kiekhofer and Kalous added four kills each, and Wallenberger had three.
In set two, Wright State overcame an early Milwaukee lead, scoring five consecutive points to take a lead at 11-7. The Panthers tied the score at 11-all, and the teams kept the score close. The Panthers tied the score at 14-all and 16-all. The Panthers kept the score close, reaching their first set point at 24-23. The Raiders fought off that set point, and reached their first two set points at 25-24 and 26-25. The Panthers scored twice to reach a second set point at 27-26, and then scored twice to finish the set at 29-27. Wilks had eight kills, including the winner, to record another double-double. Wallenberger had six kills in the set. Schultz rejoined the Panther rotation late in the set.
Set three saw the Raiders build a seven point lead at 13-6 and 14-7 early. The Panthers narrowed the lead gradually, and appeared to have tied the score at 18-all, when the Raiders were given a point on a touch-call that baffled Coach Johnson. The call stood, and the Raider lead was 19-17. Wright State then opened a lead of three to four points which they maintained through the end of the set.
The Panthers scored six of the first seven points in set four, leading by five at 6-1 and 7-2. The Raiders responded by scoring seven of the next nine points to tie the score at 9-all, and took their first lead with a three point run to go ahead 12-11. The teams traded the lead to a 15-14 Panther lead, at which point the Raiders scored five points in a row to take a 19-15 lead, and then scored two of the next three points to extend their lead to 21-16. The Panthers reeled off five of the next six points to cut the lead to 22-21, and tied the score at 23-all and 24-all, before making consecutive errors to lose the set 24-26.
The Panthers responded positively in set five, scoring the first three points of the set, and six of the next eight points to take a 9-2 lead. Wallenberger, Wilks and Schultz all had two kills apiece in the early going. The lead was again seven points at 10-3 following a Wallenberger kill. A final Wright State four point run cut the lead to 11-7, but Milwaukee scored four of the last five points to finish the set, reestablishing a seven point lead, to win the set and the match. Wilks finished with a season high 21 kills (just two short of her career high) and 17 digs. Wallenberger had 19 kills (on a .385 hitting percentage) and seven blocks (two solo). Schultz had 16 kills and hit .278. Kalous had 10 kills and a block.
The Panthers are now tied with the Raiders at 3-5 in conferance play at the halfway point. Milwaukee begins the second pass through the league with a challenging road trip next weekend to Oakland on Friday and Cleveland on Saturday. The Panthers beat the Golden Grizzlies 3-1 at home, but Oakland has won all six league matches since then. Cleveland State is 5-3 and looking up at Oakland and IUPUI in the standings. The two-time defending champion Vikings swept the Panthers in Milwaukee.
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Post by skrapheap on Oct 21, 2017 14:28:08 GMT -6
Milwaukee completed a season sweep of Oakland last night with a 3-2 win over the Golden Grizzlies to begin this weekend’s road swing. Oakland, tied for first in the league with IUPUI at 6-2, at the midway point of league play, took a six match winning streak into play. The Panthers entered play at 3-5, tied with Wright State at 3-5. The Panthers alternated set wins with the Grizzlies before pulling away in set five. The scores were 25-23, 18-25, 25-23, 23-25, and 15-10. Bridget Wallenberger led all scorers with 21 kills, and Kylie Wilks had 18 kills and 19 digs (her sixth consecutive double-double). Jenn Dore had 63 assists.
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