Maddie Sueppel
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Panthers Look To Bounce Back At Home
UWM remains atop Horizon League standings
Oct. 27, 2008
Fri. Oct. 31 • Green Bay • 7 pm • Klotsche Center
Of Note: Phoenix have dropped five-straight matches; GB claimed 3-2 win over Milwaukee in first meeting
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's volleyball team looks to bounce back when it returns home to host in-state rival Green Bay Friday night at the Klotsche Center. The match will be televised on a tape-delayed basis across eastern Wisconsin on Time Warner Sports.
The Panthers (15-8, 8-3 Horizon) will enter the contest hoping to snap a three-match slide that has trimmed their lead atop the Horizon League standings to just one match. UWM dropped a pair of four-set league matches over the weekend, falling at Valparaiso Friday night and at Butler Saturday afternoon. Those two squads are tied for second place behind Milwaukee, and all three teams have five matches remaining.
Green Bay (8-13, 4-7) dropped a pair of matches on the very same road trip over the weekend and the Phoenix are now fighting for an upper-division finish in league play. Green Bay did beat Milwaukee in the first match between the two teams this year, recovering from a 2-0 deficit to claim a 3-2 win.
Printable Weekly Notes
• The Week Ahead
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's volleyball team plays just one match this week, welcoming in-state rival Green Bay to the Klotsche Center for a Friday night contest.
• Scouting The Phoenix
Green Bay enters Friday's match looking to snap a slide of its own, as the Phoenix have dropped five-straight matches to fall into a sixth-place tie in the league standings. Holly Visser leads GB offensively (3.09 kps), though it was Abby Bergsma (20 kills) who led the Phoenix in their first match with the Panthers. Green Bay remains strong defensively, leading the league in digs.
• Halloween Fun
The UWM Alumni Association will play host to Family Halloween Night for the match Friday. Festivities will begin at 6 p.m. and will include costume contests, games and treats for kids and free popcorn. Alumni and families can buy tickets for just $1.
• Wrapping Up The Past Week
Not much went right for the Panthers over the past week, as UWM dropped all three of the matches it played. The week opened at Marquette Monday, and Milwaukee looked to be in good shape up 2-0. Instead, the Golden Eagles rallied to win the next three sets to escape with the victory. Then Friday at Valparaiso, the Panthers won the first set and had a chance to win the second set before fading over the final two sets. Saturday at Butler, the two teams split the first two sets but UWM could not hold off late surges by the Bulldogs in sets three and four as Butler claimed the victory.
• What Went Wrong
Stats may not always provide the full list of reasons for why a team is winning or losing, but a simple comparison of UWM's stats for the first 20 matches of the season compared to those over the last three matches provides a peak at some of the areas the Panthers struggled in during the past week.
First 20 Last 3 Diff.
KPS 12.89 11.00 -1.89
OKPS 11.64 14.23 +2.59
Hit Pct..183 .122 -.061
Opp Pct..145 .210 +.065
DPS 17.69 14.54 -3.15
ODPS 16.35 17.62 +1.27
• Looking To Snap A Slide
UWM begins the week with a three-match losing streak, the first time since 2005 the Panthers have dropped three-straight matches. That season is also the last time UWM dropped back-to-back league matches. Milwaukee followed that up by winning its next 12 league contests to claim the league title.
• Another New Face
With such a young roster, UWM has been introducing new faces into the rotation all season long. This past week, the latest new face into the group was Melissa Jansen, who came off the bench as part of the regular rotation Friday night at Valparaiso before making her first collegiate start Saturday at Butler. Jansen is the 12th different player to be in the starting lineup for the Panthers this season. She did quite well in her first start, collecting 10 kills.
• Freshman Records
It's now late enough in the year that some of the Panthers' new faces are making their way into the UWM freshman record book. Kerri Schuh has 190 kills, placing her tied for seventh on the freshman list. She also has 68 blocks, placing her eighth on that list. Meanwhile, Samantha Trawitzke has collected 509 assists, putting her fifth on the freshman list in that category.
• Senior Salute
Becky Peters continues to do her part as the lone senior on UWM's roster. She is already both UWM and the Horizon League's all-time digs leader and has now moved up to sixth on UWM's all-time matches played list (111). Her dig total is up to 1,780, with her already the only Panther in Division I school history to surpass 1,700 digs. On the season, she stands second in the league in kills and eighth in the league in digs.
• Lots And Lots Of Lauren
Lauren Felsing continues to gain recognition as one of the top liberos in the Midwest. She has already been named the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week twice this season, including two weeks ago when she averaged 6.44 digs per set in four UWM victories. Felsing has now reached double figures in digs in 48-straight contests, the third-longest active streak in the country. On the season, she ranks third in the league in digs per set. And, she has 1,198 career digs, pushing her up to fifth on UWM's all-time list. She is also on pace for the best single-season for digs in UWM history.
• Diggin' It
The Panthers expected to be strong in the back row and a large group of players have made that come true. Despite a lower-than-average week in the category, the Panthers are still averaging more than 17 digs per set overall and over 19 digs per set in league play. Already this season, the Panthers have outdug Wright State by 30 digs (84-54) and Butler by 27 (95-68). Those two advantages are the biggest in the category for the Panthers since the 1999 season, when UWM outdug Butler by 30 and Loyola by 29. UWM is second in the league in digs per set.
• And Let's Throw A Block Party, Too
UWM's front row has begun to provide a steady defensive compliment to the strong back row. The Panthers reached double figures in blocks for the ninth time this season Friday at Valpo. Overall, just four opponents (Illinois State, Michigan State, Oregon State and Marquette) have hit better than .200 against UWM so far this season while 12 others have hit less than .150. For the year, opponents are hitting .145 against the Panthers.
• Listing The League Honors
UWM has had players recognized four times this season as players of the week in the Horizon League. Lauren Felsing has earned defensive player of the week recognition twice, including after the first week of the season. The highlight of that weekend for Felsing was a 29-dig effort against nationally-ranked Iowa State. Becky Peters then won offensive player of the week honors in mid-September after breaking UWM's all-time digs record while collecting a collegiate-best 24 kills against Oregon State. Finally, Natalie Schmitting won defensive honors Sept. 29 after averaging 1.88 blocks per set in a pair of wins.
• Getting Others Involved
One of the other keys to the success a young Panther team has enjoyed this season is the variety of people stepping up with big performances at key times. As noted earlier, UWM has had 12 different players earn at least one start, while four players (Becky Peters, Maddie Sueppel, Natalie Schmitting and Lauren Felsing) have started all 23 matches. Meanwhile, six different players have at least one double-figure kill match while six different players have at least one double-figure dig outing.
• The Young Ones
UWM is counting on plenty of youth in 2008, with 12 freshmen and sophomores among the 15 active players on the roster. Four different true freshmen (Mary Beth O'Brien, Morgan Potter, Sam Trawitzke and Melissa Jansen) have earned starts this season, while sophomores Natalie Schmitting and Maddie Sueppel plus redshirt freshman Kerri Schuh have started every match for the Panthers this season. All 14 healthy and available players have made appearances in at least five matches for the Panthers, with only freshman Morgan Kilberger (shoulder injury) yet to see action. The youth is being counted on for offense in particular, with 825 of UWM's 1187 kills (69.5 percent) in 23 matches coming from freshmen and sophomores.
• Other Items In The Notebook
UWM's title in the Wingate by Wyndham Invitational marks the third-straight year where the Panthers have won an in-season tournament crown. In all, Milwaukee has won 10 in-season tournaments in the last 12 years and has a 77-42 record during in-season tournaments over that time period ... UWM's win over then-#18 Iowa State Aug. 29 marked the Panthers first win over a ranked for since 1999, when then-#9 Wisconsin left the Klotsche Center a loser. And, it is just Milwaukee's second win over a ranked foe since the Panthers moved to Division I in 1990 ... UWM has won five-straight matches against teams from the Big East ... UWM has won 16 of its last 20 league road contests ... Milwaukee has won 12 of its 14 Horizon League openers ... the Panthers have now won 124 of their last 139 home matches overall and have a 34-match home regular season league winning streak ... Milwaukee is now 97-11 in October over the last 11-plus season ... UWM had won 16-straight matches in October until the loss at Green Bay Oct. 3 ... the Panthers had also won 49-straight matches when winning the first set until losing at Green Bay after leading 2-0. That streak dated back to the beginning of the 2006 campaign.
• Claiming Tourney Honors
Four different UWM players were honored for tournament performances this season. At the Wingate by Wyndham Invitational Sept. 5-6, Becky Peters was named the most outstanding player while Lauren Felsing and Maddie Sueppel joined her on the all-tournament team. Then at the MSU Showcase Sept. 11-12, Felsing and Natalie Schmitting were honored.
• Smart Kids
UWM's academic awards continue to pile up. The team received the AVCA Team Academic Award in July after the Panthers posted a team GPA of 3.411. UWM's success in school extends throughout its roster, as 12 players on last year's team finished the school year with a cume GPA of 3.0 or better and seven of those players posting better than a 3.5 GPA. Following the 2007 season, Leanne Felsing earned ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Region recognition while Leanne and her sister, Lauren, each earned Horizon League All-Academic honors. Lauren and Becky Peters have also since captured U.S. Army Horizon League Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors, while Felsing was also named the league's scholar-athlete of the month for September.
• Up Next
UWM hosts Cleveland St. and Youngstown St. next weekend.
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