Milwaukee City Wire

The Milwaukee Panthers women's volleyball team will start their 2025 season with two matches against the Omaha Mavericks at Baxter Arena in Nebraska. The games are scheduled for Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, marking only the second and third meetings between the two programs. Their last encounter was in 2018, when Milwaukee won the first set but lost the match 3-1.

Both matches will be available to stream online through the Summit League Network, with live statistics accessible via MKEPanthers.com.

Milwaukee enters this season after finishing second in the Horizon League standings last year, ending with a 13-5 regular-season record. Head coach Susie Johnson returns for her 19th season leading the program and has accumulated 305 wins—the most in team history—and holds a record of 196 victories in Horizon League play.

Assistant coach Lindsey Vanden Berg is also back for her 19th season, while Katie Adams returns for her second year on staff. New to the coaching team is Raina Terry, who joins after an All-American playing career at Illinois.

The Panthers bring back nine players from last year's roster and have added seven newcomers to form a squad of sixteen. Among those returning is Kara Erdmann, who was named Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year in 2024. Erdmann set several program records last season, including most digs in a five-set match (47), four-set match (34), and three-set match (29). She finished with a school-best total of 718 digs and averaged 5.85 per set—both marks were second highest among all Division I players last year. In her three seasons at Milwaukee, she ranks fifth all-time with an average of 3.93 digs per set.

Erdmann was selected to both the All-League First Team and academic teams last year alongside senior Natalie Schmitz, who returns after being named to the All-League Second Team in 2024. Schmitz finished her junior campaign just shy of reaching 1,000 career kills and posted personal bests with 27 service aces and 106 digs.

Freshman Milica Tomic made an impact as well by earning All-Freshman Team honors—she was recognized as such for her performance distributing assists (549) and serving (28 aces).

New additions via transfer include Hailey Hutchings from Grand Canyon University’s beach volleyball program; Carol Herrero from Iowa Western; and Annie Eschenbach from McHenry County College by way of Xavier University.

Five true freshmen join this year's roster: Sam Vanda (Geneva, Ill.), Julia Kellner (Racine, Wis.), Braylin Bosetski (De Pere, Wis.), Ella Schuetz (Lake Mills, Wis.), and Josie Noble (Caledonia, Mich.). Noble is notable as the first player from Michigan to join Milwaukee's volleyball program.

Setter Josie Johnson became just the tenth player in Milwaukee’s Division I history to reach at least 1,800 career assists during her final match last season; she enters this year needing only 193 more assists to reach 2,000.

Head coach Susie Johnson is approaching another milestone—she needs four more league wins to reach a total of 200 Horizon League victories over her tenure.

On their upcoming opponents: Omaha is led by seventh-year head coach Matt Buttermore. The Mavericks reached their first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history in 2023 before posting a record of 17-13 overall last season—including a run into the Super 16 round of the NIVC Tournament. Offensively they return Kali Jurgensmeier—who led them with 362 kills—but otherwise have significant turnover among top contributors from last year’s roster.

After opening weekend at Omaha, Milwaukee will host its annual Panther Invitational September 5–7 at Klotsche Center against Iowa State, Central Michigan, and South Alabama before traveling out-of-state later that month for matches against Grand Canyon University, Pepperdine University, and Arizona State University.

Milwaukee will also face nationally ranked Wisconsin on September 9 followed by Marquette on September 14; both opponents have received attention from national coaches’ polls. Historically Milwaukee has struggled against top-25 programs with only two wins across thirty-nine meetings all-time.

Looking ahead within conference play: Northern Illinois will join as a full member of Horizon League next season; historically NIU leads their series versus Milwaukee but recent results favor the Panthers.