Milwaukee City Wire

Milwaukee's women's volleyball team continued its strong start in Horizon League play with a straight-set victory over Green Bay on Tuesday at the Klotsche Center. The win improved Milwaukee's conference record to 3-0.

Natalie Schmitz led the Panthers' offense, finishing with 12 kills on 27 attempts and a .296 hitting percentage. Bella Lipski contributed seven kills, while Ella Schuetz added five. The team ended the match with 34 total kills and a .237 hitting percentage.

Milwaukee also tallied seven service aces, including two from Josie Johnson, who led the team in assists with 17. Milica Tomic provided an additional 10 assists.

On defense, Kara Erdmann recorded 15 digs for Milwaukee. The Panthers registered eight blocks as a team, highlighted by Josie Noble’s seven blocks. Annie Eschenbach and Emily Hansen each had three blocks.

Head coach Susie Johnson commented on her team's performance: "We put together a really strong game plan, and our team executed it efficiently tonight," Johnson said. "Once again, I thought we played together and as a team. We faced some adversity in the second and third sets, but we were able to stay composed and push back, which is incredibly vital as we get into conference play."

The Panthers started quickly by winning the first four points of the opening set and built their lead to 23-12 after a service ace from Noble. Schmitz delivered set point at 24-13 before Lipski closed out the set.

In the second set, Green Bay remained close until Erdmann's service ace gave Milwaukee an 18-14 advantage. Despite Green Bay holding off four set points late in the frame, Schmitz secured the set for Milwaukee at 25-22.

Green Bay began the third set strongly with a 10-5 lead before three consecutive errors allowed Milwaukee to narrow the gap. Kati Goba tied it at 16 with a service ace. After trading leads late in the set, two Phoenix errors gave Milwaukee a 26-24 win to complete the sweep.

Green Bay finished with a .112 hitting percentage and committed 25 errors during the match. Diane Pichelman and Gillian Koning each posted ten kills for Green Bay; Olivia Neumann had six blocks while Kennedy Schmitz recorded ten digs on defense.

Looking ahead, Milwaukee will play its first away matches of Horizon League competition this season against IU Indy. The games are scheduled for Friday at 5:00 p.m. (CT) and Saturday at 1:00 p.m. (CT).