2022 Volleyball

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2022 Schedule

The Panthers will be the defending regular season champs of the Horizon League. They graduated a lot of leaders from the 2021 squad, but the returning core is very good, starting with Ari Miller, all-everything in her previous seasons and back for her fourth season, and Madi Malone, the 2021 Freshman of the Year. Miller is currently listed as a Junior on the roster, so perhaps she is planning on availing herself of the additional year of play due to Covid; if that's the case, the Panthers could have three years of Miller and Malone leading the way. The Panthers had a number of young front row players last year who played well when they got on the court, but with all the seniors on the 2021 squad, playing time was scarce. Two of those players, who could expect to play much more this fall, are Bri Geurts and Tatum Catalano. Geurts hit better, but both were effective blockers.

Kaley Blake returns at setter, moving into the lead position, presumably, if the Panthers continue to play a 6-2 offense.

The Panthers will have a lot of new faces in 2022, but some of them already have D1 experience. Czhen Beneby is a 6'3"middle blocker who played at Virginia. Lakyn Graves is a 6'2" middle blocker from Menominee Falls who played one season for a Nebraska-Omaha team that won its conference title. There are several freshmen coming in from successful high school careers.

The path to another title will not be easy, as the league will be competitive. Wright State and Northern Kentucky can be expected to contend. Cleveland State's coach, Chuck Voss, has had a lot of success until recently. The Vikings took their lumps in 2021, but a Voss-coached team cannot be counted out. Last year's tournament champ, UIC, is no longer in the HL.

[Pounce Needs Pals]

LSU at home, wow!

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Three Horizon League opponents will have new head coaches in 2022, one of whom was an interim coach in 2021.

The most significant change is at Wright State. Allie Matters had immediate success at Wright State and followed that success with three more seasons as a league power, winning two regular season titles in her four years and an HL tournament title once, which led to a first round victory in the NCAA tournament, which does not happen often. She was hired away by Illinois State University in March. A look at the Raider roster for this fall to this point shows that most of her players are returning, so perhaps the new coach, Travers Green, will have less of a challenge maintaining the Raiders' recent success than otherwise. He comes to the program from an assistant coaching position at Mississippi State University, a team that has enjoyed success over the past several years at least.

Danny Doherty was named interim head coach at Robert Morris after the university fired a coach after 15 years at the end of the 2020 season. The Colonials had a 9-21 overall record in 2021 (2-16 in league play), but the athletic department saw apparently enough progress to remove the interim tag and give Doherty the job on a more permanent basis. It will be interesting to see how patient the university will be, as his teams clearly have a long way to go to attain respect within the league.

The third change was at Oakland. Long-time head coach Rob Beam resigned in January 2022 after 16 years at OU, 15 as the head coach. His teams had some early success during his tenure, winning the Horizon League in 2014, but had not sustained that success. His career winning percentage was just over .500. He cited "other challenges" and "spending more time with his family" as reasons for his resignation. He might genuinely be burned out, or perhaps he was a victim of the program's relative lack of success as the League as a whole has become steadily more competitive. His replacement is Krista Rice, Associate Head Coach at Central Michigan University. The Panthers have played CMU in nonleague play a number of times.

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Through their first five matches, the Panthers are 1-4.

They were swept by their first two opponents, both from Power Five conferences. They improved in the third match, taking a strong Notre Dame team (hosting the tournament) to five sets before losing the match. After being thoroughly dominated statistically, the Panthers managed to play some better volleyball, taking two consecutive sets (their first wins of the season). In the final set against Notre Dame, the Panthers trailed the Irish 8-1 before scoring 12 of the last 19 points to lose 15-13.

This weekend Milwaukee is playing in Purdue's tournament. The Panthers struggled early against Utah, losing the first two sets, before winning consecutive sets of their own. Utah began to reassert itself in the fourth set, but the Panthers hung, on to win 26-24. The fifth set was another battle, with the Utes winning 19-17. The Panthers brokethrough in their fifth match of the season against Bradley, winning in four sets. The Panthers won the first set 25-23, lost the second 22-25, and then took control, winning the third and fourth sets, 25-16 and 25-21. As one might expect the bulk of Milwaukee's scoring is coming from their veteran players, especially Ari Miller and Madi Malone. They are seeing contributions from newer players though, and those contributions are trending in the right direction, as the newcomers acclimate themselves to the speed and physicality of D1 volleyball.

Coach Johnson schedules non-league matches to provide challenges to develop her players individually and as a team, with match wins mattering somewhat less than steady improvement in play. It's still very early, but so far she appears to be happy with the play she is seeing. The team has improved on both offense and defense. In the first two matches, the opponents were able to score in bunches and the Panthers struggled to string points together. In the next three matches, the Panthers' play has been more even.

The remaining match this weekend will be another strong challenge against the home team: nationally ranked Purdue. The Big Ten regularly sends teams to the NCAA finals (including last season's National Champion Wisconsin Badgers ).

After that comes the first home match, against LSU and a trip cross-town to play Marquette.

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The Pathers lost this afternoon in four sets to Purdue. After being pushed around in the first two sets, Milwaukee took control and won set three, and narrowly lost in the fourth set.

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After taking their lumps during the non-league portion of the season, the Panthers started Horizon League play with a sweep of Purdue Fort Wayne on the road.

The Mastodons started set one well, overcoming a 4-3 Panther lead and building a four point lead which they maintained until late in the set. The Panthers were down four set points at 20-24. From that point, the Panthers outscored the Mastodons 9-3, winning set one 29-27. Ari Miller had four of her team-high 15 kills during that stretch.

Set two was an easy win. The Panthers jumped out to a 5-1 lead early, which they built up to an eight to nine point lead. A final surge finished the set at 25-13. Milwaukee hit a blistering .647 in the set, after hitting .238 in set one. Purdue Fort Wayne bounced back up in set three, taking an 18-15 lead before Milwaukee's finishing surge. The final score in set three was 25-20. The Panthers hit .387 in the set to finish at .367 for the match. Milwaukee's defense was strong, outdigging Purdue Fort Wayne 38-35 and outblocking PFW by 10-2. Five service aces also helped. Miller was the only Panther with double-digit kills, but Madi Malone and Natalie Schmitz finished with nine kills each; Schmitz hit .471 for the match.

Miller had the Panthers' two solo blocks and four block assists. Bri Geurts and Maddie Moan also had four block assists in the match.

As the Panther-Mastodon match had an early start, I watched parts of two other league matches. Oakland beat Robert Morris on the road in four sets. The Grizzlies took set one and the Colonials set two, both by 25-23 scores. The Grizzlies won set three handily, 25-15, and it looked like RMU was going to force a fifth set, as they jumped out to sizable leads in set four, only to collapse. Oakland scored nine consecutive points to tie the score, at 20-all. RMU scored two points to retake a lead at 22-20, gave up three more points, tied the score at 23-all, and then gave up two more points to allow Oakland to win the set and the match, 25-23.

The other match I watched was Cleveland State versus Youngstown State on Youngstown's home court. Cleveland State appears to have scheduled tough non-league opponents in much the same way Milwaukee did, as they were 3-8 in non-league play. The Vikings won in five sets, 14-25, 25-15, 25-20, 15-25, and 18-16.

As it happens, Robert Morris and Youngstown State are Milwaukee's next two opponents, as the Panthers open the home portion of the league season. YSU comes to the Klotsche Center on Friday night, and RMU on Saturday afternoon.

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Match two in league play brought Youngstown State to the Klotsche Center. After dropping set one, Milwaukee won three sets to take the match.

The Penguins started the match playing about as well as possible. The Panthers had early leads, until a four-point run gave YSU a lead they would keep for the rest of the set. The Penguins hit .480 for the set to .360 for the Panthers. The final score for the set was 25-20.

Thereafter, the Panthers seized control of the match. The Panther defense tightened, and the Penguin offense was slowed. Milwaukee took an early lead, and held it to the end of set two. YSU hit a very respectable .225 for the set, but Milwaukee maintained their level of play, hitting .355. The Penguins had five hitting errors, three more than in set one; the Panthers had two. The Panther block contributed two blocks to the Penguins' error total. The Panthers cruised to a set three win, hitting .536 with only one hitting error. The Penguins had only eight kills and four hitting errors, for a set three percentage of .148. The final score for the set was 25-10. Milwaukee finished the match in set four, winning 25-18 on a .240 hitting percentage. YSU hit .086 with eight errors to only eleven kills.

Ari Miller led all scorers with 16 kills. Natalie Schmitz had 12 kills. Czhen Beneby contributed eight kills, hitting .800 for the match. Defense was a strength again, as Milwaukee had 44 digs to 33 for YSU, and 10 blocks to six for the Penguins.

Next up is a home match with Robert Morris at 4:00 PM today.

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Eight matches into league play, Milwaukee is 5-3, in fourth place in the standings. They won their first three matches, lost three, and rebounded with two wins. The first of the three losses was to IUPUI, a match they were expected to win. The other two losses were to Wright State, currently atop the standings and undefeated in league play, and Northern Kentucky, currently in third place. All three losses were road matches; five of nine matches in the first half of the league season were on the road. The remaining match in the first half of the league season is a road match at Green Bay, who is currently in second place at 6-2. The rest of the league will play two matches each this weekend to finish the first half of the league season.

Green Bay won their first five league matches before losing two, one on the road to Wright State and then a home match with Oakland in five sets. The Panthers swept Oakland at home the next day, while the Phoenix hung on to beat Cleveland State. The match at Green Bay will be a challenge, but the Panthers have the talent to win the match. I don't expect either team to sweep the match, and I would not be surprised if the match needed five sets to determine the winner.

This year's squad has not reached the levels of consistency reached by the teams in the last couple of years, most especially last year's team which won the regular season title. The 2022 Panthers have plenty of balance, but players haven't quite risen to the level of being alternative weapons to Ari Miller. Madi Malone is contributing both kills and digs as a full rotational player, but she is not scoring like she did last season. Natalie Schmitz has been a consistent scorer in double figures but her kills per set average is only just above Malone's, and .65 below Miller's. The defense seems pretty solid; they are not consistently out-digging the opposition, but the block is significantly better than last year's peformance; overall the Panthers are averaging 2.1 blocks per set, ahead of last year's 1.6; in league play, the Panthers have improved on last year's 2.2 blocks per set, to 2.3 so far. The Panthers have not consistently played the lock-down defense they did last year. Opponents are hitting an average of .255 this year as opposed to .188 last year. Part of the difference can be attributed to the quality of the non-league competition this season, and much of the rest of the difference to the consistent improvement in the quality of the players in the league.

There is still time for the team's play to improve. Czhen Beneby, a freshman, looks considerably more comfortable now than she did at the beginning of the season. She's been improving at scoring in recent matches along with being a contributor as a blocker. Schmitz saw the court early and has been a regular starter. Bri Geurts has made significant defensive contibutions all sesaon and seems to be scoring more in recent matches as she has earned more court time. Right now the Panthers' fourth place showing appears to be about right. That would earn them a spot in the league tournament. If the team improves significantly it could rise in the standings, though Wright State looks to be tough to unseat from the top seed, and NKU figures to be in the mix. Green Bay has been steadily on the rise in the past few years and will be a tough team to pass in the standings, though I believe the Panthers are capable of it.

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Milwaukee started the second pass through the Horizon League with a 3-1 victory over IUPUI, a victory that was almost a complete reversal of the Panthers' road loss to the Jaguars.

In the earlier match, the Jaguars went on a big first set scoring run to take the first set, overcoming a substantial Panther lead. The Panthers closed out tonight's match by scoring seven consecutive points to change a 19-14 Jaguar lead into a 21-19 Panther lead. The Panthers outscored the Jaguars 4-2 the rest of the way to claim the match. The Panthers are now 6-4 in league play, in fourth place by themselves after Youngstown State over came a 2-0 deficit to beat Oakland in five sets. The Grizzlies started the evening tied with the Panthers and are now 5-5 in league play.

Ari Miller lead the way win 17 kills, after not reaching double figures in two consecutive matches. Miller hit .500 on the night; going in to the match, she led the league in hitting percentage. She was joined by Natalie Schmitz, who had 14 kills on a .387 hitting percentage, and Madi Malone, who had a double double on 13 kills (on a .263 percentage) and 13 digs. Malone also had two assists. Just behind this trio was Czhen Beneby with nine kills (.429 hitting percentage) and four blocks, and Bri Geurts with eight kills (.385 hitting percentage) and five blocks. Milwaukee's team hitting percentage (.362) was its second highest of the season.

Next up is a weekend road trip to play Robert Morris on Friday and Youngstown State on Saturday, followed by a key three game home stand, with matches against Northern Kentucky and Wright State, two of the teams ahead of Milwaukee in the standings, and finishing with Purdue Fort Wayne. The Panthers will take a 15 match winning streak in league play at home into that home stand.

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Just when it looked like the Panthers were starting to play better, their top player, Ari Miller, gets injured. She has now missed five matches, and the Panthers are 2-3 over that stretch. They have managed to hang on to fourth place in the league standings so far, though they have fallen well back of the top three teams. I've not heard anything about the severity of Miller's injury, but the sooner she gets back on the court the better. The Panthers finish with road matches at Oakland and Cleveland State and a home match with Green Bay. The Grizzlies and Vikings are currently tied for sixth place at 6-8.

Wright State continues to run away with the regular season title, still undefeated at 14-0. The Raiders face IUPUI, Robert Morris, Purdue Fort Wayne, Robert Morris and Youngstown State to finish league play, all on the road. YSU will present the biggest challenge, but I like the Raiders' odds of finishing 18-0 and hosting the tournament.

Second place NKU is three losses behind WSU, and two of those losses are to the Raiders. The Norse have four matches left, starting with home matches with Purdue Fort Wayne and IUPUI, followed by road matches with Youngstown State and Robert Morris. Of those four opponents, only one, YSU, has a real shot at making the league tournament.

Green Bay also has 11 wins, but has four losses to three for the Norse. The Phoenix have three road matches to play to end the regular season, at Cleveland State, at Oakland, and at Milwaukee. There's a chance the Phoenix could tie the Norse for second place if Green Bay wins out.

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Ari Miller returned to action tonight and led the Panthers to a sweep over Oakland. Miller had 12 kills to lead all scorers. She contributed two solo blocks and two block assists to the defense. The sweep kept the Panthers in fourth place in the league at 9-7, just ahead of fifth place Youngstown State at 8-8. The loss dropped the Grizzlies out of a sixth-place tie with Cleveland State, who swept Green Bay.

The Phoenix travel to play Oakland tomorrow. A Phoenix victory would lock them in third place and pretty much eliminate Oakland from the tournament.

The Panthers play Cleveland State. If Milwaukee wins, they would take a firmer hold on fourth place. YSU, who has been climbing the standings thanks to a winning streak, faces a challenge, playing Northern Kentucky at home. A loss would give YSU nine losses in league play. A victory over CSU would give Milwaukee ten wins in league play, which means the worst the Panthers could do would be eight losses.