Milwaukee City Wire

Susie Johnson has announced the 2024 schedule for the Milwaukee volleyball team, featuring six teams that qualified for the 2023 NCAA Tournament, including two opponents that reached the Elite Eight.

The Panthers will begin the season at home on August 30 when they welcome Stanford to the Klotsche Center. The Cardinal finished the 2023 ranked fifth in the final AVCA Coaches Poll and narrowly missed a spot in the Final Four of last year's tournament, falling to fifth-ranked Texas in the regional finals. Stanford was ranked within the top-five all season in 2023 and will be the first ranked program to play in the Klotsche Center since Iowa State (ranked 18th) played the Panthers in 2008. The Panthers upset the Cyclones in five sets that season.

Milwaukee will head on the road on August 31 to take on Western Illinois, who it defeated last season, with the game taking place at Northern Illinois. The Panthers will face host Huskies on September 1 in their first meeting since 2019.

The following weekend, Milwaukee heads to Texas to take on a pair of NCAA-qualifying teams, beginning with host Southern Methodist on September 5. Last year, SMU reached the second round of the tournament and received votes in national polls during the season. This will be Milwaukee's first meeting with SMU since 2004.

On September 6, Milwaukee will meet Weber State for its first encounter with another team that achieved over 20 wins last season and reached the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Loyola Marymount is scheduled as Milwaukee's final opponent in Texas on September 7; although narrowly missing an NCAA bid, Loyola Marymount received top-25 votes during regular-season play in 2023.

Returning to their home state, Milwaukee will visit UW Field House to take on Wisconsin Badgers on September 10. The Badgers won 30 matches and reached last season's Final Four while being ranked top-five throughout most of it. This marks their first meeting since facing off in the 2013 NCAA Tournament.

After this challenging road trip, Milwaukee returns home for Panther Invitational matches against Illinois State (Sept.13), St. Thomas (Sept.14), and Iowa (Sept.15). With Iowa’s visit marking a second consecutive Big Ten team visiting Klotsche Center after Northwestern's defeat by Milwaukee last year.

Following this event are trips to Chicago where they’ll face DePaul on September19 and UIC on September21 with UIC match taking place at DePaul’s venue.

Conference play introduces a new format as Horizon League transitions from 'travel partners' into back-to-back games between institutions over two days starting from weekend Sept27-28 when Panthers visit Oakland.

Milwaukee’s only midweek conference games against Green Bay are split between Kress Center visit October1 followed by Phoenix returning favor October29 at Klotsche Center.

Horizon League action continues hosting IU Indianapolis Oct4-5 before hitting roads again visiting Northern Kentucky Oct11-12 followed by hosting defending champions Wright State Oct18-19 whose previous encounters resulted splitting matches but Raiders clinched league’s NCAA bid eventually

Final notable match involves city rival Marquette October22 hosted Al McGuire Center after earning sixth seed reaching No12 AVCA Poll

Concluding regular-season fixtures include hosting Youngstown State Oct25-26 then Green Bay return leg Oct29 followed away series Purdue Fort Wayne Nov1-2 Robert Morris Nov8-9 closing Cleveland State Nov15-16

Horizon League Championship featuring top-six regular-season teams single-elimination bracket three-day event held highest seed venue winner gaining league’s automatic qualification into NCAA Volleyball Championship

*Note: All dates/times/opponents subject changes communicated via MKE Athletics website social media channels.

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