Maddie Sueppel
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UWM Hits Road Looking To Claim League Crown
Panthers head to Chicago trying to stay atop standings
Nov. 10, 2008
Fri. Nov. 14 • UIC • 7 pm • Flames Athletic Center
Of Note: Flames could still climb to sixth place
Sat. Nov. 15 • Loyola • 2 pm • Alumni Gym
Of Note: Ramblers looking for 20-win season
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's volleyball team wraps up the 2008 regular season with a pair of matches in Chicago this weekend.
The stakes for the Panthers are high. UWM starts the weekend just ahead of Valparaiso for the top spot in the Horizon League. While Milwaukee (18-8, 11-3 League) is playing in Chicago, VU (21-6, 11-4 League) will take on Wright State Saturday. The Panthers will clinch at least a share of the title with one win and can take the outright crown with a pair of victories.
UWM took care of business on its homecourt this past weekend, sweeping past Cleveland State Friday night before winning a tough four-set decision against Youngstown State Saturday. Milwaukee hit better than .200 in each of the two matches while junior libero Lauren Felsing earned Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week honors for her efforts.
Printable Weekly Notes
• The Week Ahead
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's volleyball team wraps up the 2008 regular season with a pair of league matches in Chicago. UWM will play at UIC Friday night and at Loyola Saturday afternoon.
• Scouting The Flames
UIC is still hoping to move up the league standings entering the final weekend of league play. The Flames have won five of their last eight matches and will take on SIU-Edwardsville in a non-league contest Tuesday before welcoming the Panthers to Chicago Friday. Casie Sullivan (2.80 kps) and Katerina Hanackova (2.59 kps) lead the offense while seven different players average at least two digs per set.
• Scouting The Ramblers
Loyola enters the final weekend of the regular season looking for a plus-.500 league record and 20 wins overall. The Ramblers could still finish as high as fourth in the league standings, but could also fall to sixth. Sarah Singer averages nearly three kills per set in leading a balanced Rambler offense while Alyse Serritella averages just over four digs per set to lead the defense. UWM beat Loyola in four sets in the first meeting between the two teams.
• Wrapping Up The Past Week
The Panthers took care of business during their final two home matches of the 2008 season. Friday night, UWM recorded a second-straight three-set sweep, knocking off Cleveland State in impressive fashion. In fact, the Panthers shot. 216 in the match while limiting the Vikings to a .070 hitting clip. Then Saturday the Panthers recovered from losing the first set to knock off Youngstown State in four frames. After the Penguins had just one hitting error in the first set the Panthers forced them into 20 over the final three sets.
• Winning Ways
The 2008 season has allowed the Panthers to add to their already stellar numbers over the past decade-plus. With the two wins this past weekend, UWM has now won at least 11 league matches for 12-straight seasons. In that time span, Milwaukee has built a 144-18 record in regular season league play. Now, UWM is looking to push its overall win total to 20, which would mark its 11th 20-win season in the last 12 years.
• A Fond Farewell To Home
UWM wrapped up its home schedule with two more victories, keeping in tact an amazing string of home success. The Panthers have now won 37-straight home regular season league matches, with their last home regular season league loss coming on Nov. 7, 2003, a five-set loss to Loyola. And, no league school outside of Loyola or Green Bay has beaten the Panthers in a regular season match in Milwaukee since 1996. Overall, UWM has now won 127 of its last 142 home matches.
• Inching Toward A Title
UWM is looking to claim another Horizon League regular season title as it heads into play this weekend. The Panthers start the weekend one match ahead of Valparaiso in the loss column, as UWM has its two matches remaining while Valpo plays just once. Thus, Milwaukee will do no worse than a share of the title with one win and can claim the outright title with two victories. If UWM can win the title, it would be its sixth-straight and its 10th overall league crown, easily the most among league schools.
• 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 into a tie for fourth on UWM's all-time matches played list (114). Her dig total is up to 1,801 and she has reached double figures in digs in 104 of her 113 career matches. This season, Peters has also reached double figures in kills 23 times while recording 18 double-doubles. Entering the final week of the regular season, Peters stands second in the league in kills and 10th in digs.
• Lots And Lots Of Lauren
Lauren Felsing continues to gain recognition as one of the top liberos in the Midwest, earning Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week honors for the third time this season. In fact, she set a new single-season UWM digs record this past weekend and has 542 so far this year. She has now reached double figures in digs in 51-straight contests, the second-longest active streak in the country. She ranks third in the league in digs per set and she has 1,254 career digs, putting her fourth on UWM's all-time list.
• Also An Academic Honor
Junior Lauren Felsing earned CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District V First Team honors Thursday. Felsing carries a 3.98 grade-point average in marketing. Felsing had already earned both U.S. Army Horizon League Scholar-Athlete of the Week and Scholar-Athlete of the Month honors this season. She also earned Horizon League All-Academic honors last season. The honor for Felsing is one of many academic honors for the Panthers in recent months. 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. Plus, Becky Peters also claimed league scholar-athlete of the week honors earlier this year. Felsing has a chance for even more national recognition, as she is now eligible for Academic All-America honors.
• Diggin' It
The Panthers expected to be strong in the back row and a large group of players have made that come true. The Panthers are still averaging more than 17 digs per set overall and nearly 19 digs per set in league play, placing UWM second in the league as a team. 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.
• 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 had 11.5 blocks in their three-set win over Cleveland State Friday and have now reached double figures in blocks 10 times this season. Overall, just six opponents have hit better than .200 against UWM so far this season while 13 others have hit less than .150. For the year, opponents are hitting .156 against the Panthers, as UWM leads the league in opponent hitting percentage.
• Listing The League Honors
UWM has now had players recognized five times this season as players of the week in the Horizon League. Lauren Felsing has earned defensive player of the week recognition three times, including this past week. Becky Peters won offensive player of the week honors in mid-September after breaking UWM's all-time digs record while collecting 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. 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 26 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 six 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 931 of UWM's 1327 kills (70 percent) in 26 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 16 of its last 20 league road contests ... Milwaukee is now 98-11 in October over the last 12 seasons ... 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 ... with its win over Green Bay Oct. 31, the Panthers avoided their first three-match league losing streak since 1995 ... Kerri Schuh now has 214 kills, the seventh-best tally by a freshman in school history ... her 78 blocks this season also rank her sixth on that school freshman list.
• 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.
• Up Next
UWM will turn its attention to the Horizon League Tournament, which this season will be played at Woodling Gymnasium in Cleveland. The Panthers will play a quarterfinal match Friday against an opponent to be determined.
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