Maddie Sueppel
|
|
Panthers Getting Ready For Illini In NCAA First Round Match
UWM, Illinois square off Friday in Champaign
Dec. 2, 2008
Fri. Dec. 5 • @ Illinois • 7 pm CST • Huff Hall
Of Note: Panthers and Illini also met in 1999 NCAA Tournament and 2005 regular season
Sat. Dec. 6 • Winner vs. UC/WKU • 7 pm CST • Huff Hall
Of Note: Winner of this match advances to Sweet 16; UWM beat Cincinnati last season
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's volleyball team will face Illinois in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday at Huff Hall in Champaign, Ill. The match will begin at 7 p.m.
The Panthers (23-8) will be making their seventh NCAA Tournament appearance and will be facing a Big Ten foe in the postseason for the fourth time.
UWM earned its spot in the NCAA field after winning the Horizon League Tournament last weekend. The Panthers beat UIC in three sets before beating Butler and Cleveland State in five-set thrillers. Milwaukee also won the Horizon League regular season crown for a sixth-straight time. The young Panthers head into the postseason riding an eight-match winning streak.
Printable Notes
• The Week Ahead
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's volleyball team heads to Champaign, Ill., for first and second round action in the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers open play Friday night against ninth-seeded Illinois.
• Tourney Talk
UWM will be making its seventh NCAA Tournament appearance, but Milwaukee is still looking for its first tournament win.The Panthers have had to play as the road team three previous times in the tournament, falling at Texas (1998), Wisconsin (2001) and Northern Iowa (2002). Milwaukee has also played in a neutral court three times, dropping contests to Illinois in Gainesville, Fla. (1999), to Michigan State in Los Angeles, Calif. (2000) and to Iowa State in Madison, Wis. (2006). UWM has been swept three times and lost in four sets three times.
|
|
 |
• Mulling The First-Round Matchup
Illinois (24-7) finished third in the Big Ten with a 15-5 mark and is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004. The Illini enter the postseason having won 11 of their last 13 matches and earned the number-nine national seed in the event. The two teams have met once previously in NCAA play, with Illinois claiming a 3-1 win over Milwaukee in Gainesville, Fla., in 1999. The Panthers and Fighting Illini also met recently in a regular season match, with Illinois claiming a 3-0 win in Champaign in 2006. Plus, the two sides teamed up for a volleyball clinic at St. Francis de Sales High School on Chicago's far south side this past March, playing a spring exhibition match as part of the event.
• A Few Other NCAA Tidbits
UWM is the only team from the state of Wisconsin in the field of 64 ... the Panthers are 2-0 against teams in the NCAA Tournament, with UWM owning wins over Iowa State and Florida A&M ... Milwaukee's last win over a Big Ten team came in 2003, when the Panthers knocked off Purdue ... former Panther Melissa David is a volunteer assistant coach for the Illini. David played on an NCAA Tournament team in Milwaukee in 2006.
• League Tourney Wrap-Up
UWM claimed three wins at the Horizon League Tournament in Cleveland to capture its fifth league tourney title and seventh NCAA Tournament berth. The Panthers swept eighth-seeded UIC in the quarterfinal round before winning a five-set thriller against fifth-seeded Butler in the semifinals. UWM trailed 2-1 in the contest before controlling the fourth and fifth sets. Then, in the title match, Milwaukee found itself matched up against the hosts from Cleveland State, the defending tournament champions and a team picked to win the league title before stumbling to a sixth-place finish. UWM again found itself down 2-1 and then had to fight off a pair of match-point chances for the Vikings before a Natalie Schmitting kill sealed things for the Panthers.
• Summing Up The Regular Season
No one quite knew what to expect from the Panthers in 2008, as they were picked third in the Horizon League after losing five seniors from the record-setting 26-3 squad of 2007. But, Milwaukee served notice on the first weekend of the season it was a force to be reckoned with, as the Panthers knocked off then-#18 Iowa State. UWM wound up claiming seven non-league wins against a difficult slate and carried that momentum into league play. The Panthers started 3-0 and eventually moved to 8-1 before a weekend road trip to Valpo and Butler dropped them back to 8-3. But, UWM bounced back to win its final five league contests and clinch its sixth-straight regular season league crown.
• Plenty Of All-League Honors
UWM's regular-season success led to five players earning post-season recognition from the Horizon League. The Panthers landed three players on the all-league team, with senior Becky Peters joined by junior Lauren Felsing and sophomore Maddie Sueppel. Plus, freshmen Kerri Schuh and Samantha Trawitzke each earned a slot on the league's all-newcomer team. UWM has now placed 10 players on the all-league team in the last three years alone while also landing four on the all-newcomer squad over the last two years.
• Always Our Coach Of The Year
For the second-straight season, UWM head coach Susie Johnson earned Horizon League Coach of the Year honors. This time, the second-year head coach was recognized after directing a team with 12 freshmen and sophomores to the top of the league standings. The numbers in Johnson's two seasons are astounding, as she has led UWM to a 49-11 overall record and a 28-4 mark in league play.
• All-Tourney Time
UWM's Horizon League Tournament championship run helped three Panthers earn a place on the all-tournament team. Maddie Sueppel was named the tournament's most valuable player and was joined on the all-tourney squad by Lauren Felsing and Kerri Schuh. Sueppel averaged 3.54 kills per set while hitting .346 in the three victories. Her weekend included 17 kills and a collegiate-best 11 blocks in the title match. Felsing averaged 4.77 digs per set, including 25 digs apiece in the quarterfinal and semifinal victories. Schuh averaged 2.69 kills per set and hit .372 over the weekend, collecting a collegiate-best 16 in the semifinal victory over Butler.
• Youth = Success
The Panthers' success in 2008 makes it easy to forget just how young of a squad UWM has fielded this season. Twelve of the 16 players on the roster are either freshmen or sophomores, and Milwaukee has just one senior. Among those youngsters, freshman Kerri Schuh and sophomores Natalie Schmitting and Maddie Sueppel have started every match this season. Plus, sophomores Natalie Chery and Lauren Hintze are regulars in the rotation and freshman Samantha Trawitzke has become UWM's main setter. Freshmen Melissa Jansen and Mary Beth O'Brien are also now seeing regular playing time off the bench. The youth is being counted on for offense in particular, with 1150 of UWM's 1606 kills (71.6 percent) in 31 matches coming from freshmen and sophomores.
• Winning Ways
The 2008 season has allowed the Panthers to add to their already stellar numbers over the past decade-plus. Milwaukee has now won six-straight outright league titles, something no other league school has ever accomplished. It is also UWM's 10th overall crown, easily the most among league schools. UWM has now won at least 11 league matches for 12-straight seasons while never losing more than three league contests during that same time. In that time span, Milwaukee has built a 146-18 record in regular season league play. UWM has also now pushed its overall win total to 23, which marks its 11th 20-win season in the last 12 years. Finally, UWM enters the NCAA Tournament riding an eight-match winning streak, meaning the Panthers have had a winning streak of seven or more matches for 12-straight seasons.
• Senior Salute
Becky Peters continues to do her part as the lone senior on UWM's roster. She is already both UWM's and the Horizon League's all-time digs leader and has now moved into third on UWM's all-time matches played list (119). Her dig total is up to 1,868 and she has reached double figures in digs in 109 of her 119 career matches. This season, Peters has reached double figures in kills 26 times while recording 21 double-doubles. Entering the NCAA Tournament, Peters stands second in the league in kills and 10th in digs. She was UWM's starting libero for the first two years of her career before moving to the outside early last season.
• 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 three times this season in addition to her recent places on the all-league and league all-tournament teams. She set a new single-season UWM digs record Nov. 8 in the match with Youngstown State and has 630 so far this year. She has now reached double figures in digs in 56-straight contests, the second-longest active streak in the country. She ranks third in the league in digs per set and she has 1,342 career digs, putting her third on UWM's all-time list. In fact, she passed her sister, Leanne, on that list during the league tournament.
• Also An Academic Standout
Junior Lauren Felsing earned CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Second-Team Academic All-America honors this past week. Felsing carries a 3.98 grade-point average in marketing. Felsing had already earned academic all-region recognition in addition to being a three-time U.S. Army Horizon League Scholar-Athlete of the Week honoree. She also earned Horizon League All-Academic honors last season. The honors for Felsing are just some of many academic awards 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.
• Monsters In The Middle
Maddie Sueppel and Natalie Schmitting have made a major impact on the Panthers' offense late in the season. Sueppel has reached double figures in kills in seven of her last eight matches while hitting .375 or better five times. In all, she was in double figures in kills in 12 of 16 league contests and in 21 matches overall. Schmitting, meanwhile, has reached double figures in four of her last six matches, hitting better than .600 twice in that span. She has reached double figures in kills 12 times overall. For the year, Sueppel ranks second on the team in kills while Schmitting is third, and each player averages nearly one block per set.
• 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 averaging just under 17 digs per set overall and averaged over 18 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.
• How About That Blocking!
UWM set a season-high with 18 blocks in the league tournament title-match win over Cleveland State. It marked the 12th time this season the Panthers have reached double figures in blocks, with Milwaukee also getting 10 blocks in the semifinal victory over Butler. Individually, Maddie Sueppel had a collegiate-best 11 blocks in the title match, the most by a Panther player since Cheryl Hegemann tallied 11 in a four-set win over Green Bay in 2003. The Panthers have held 15 opponents to less than a .150 hitting clip and UWM leads the league in opponent hitting percentage
• 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 28 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.
• 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 three weeks ago. 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.
• Other Items In The Notebook
UWM is now 7-3 in five-set matches this season ... Kerri Schuh now has 263 kills, the fifth-best tally by a freshman in school history ... her 91 blocks this season also rank her fifth on that school freshman list ... Sam Trawitzke's 741 assists place her fourth on UWM's freshman list ... the Panthers have now won 37-straight home regular season league matches, with their last home regular season league loss coming in 2003 ... UWM's win over then-#18 Iowa State Aug. 29 marked the Panthers first win over a ranked foe 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 18 of its last 22 league regular season road contests ... the Panthers had 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 ... 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 ... four different UWM players were honored for regular-season tournament performances this season. Becky Peters was named the most outstanding player at Bradley while Lauren Felsing and Maddie Sueppel joined her on the all-tournament team. Then at Michigan State, Felsing and Natalie Schmitting were honored.
• Up Next
The team that survives this weekend advances to the University Park Regional in University Park, Pa. The regional semifinals would pit the winner in Champaign against the winner of matches being played in Berkeley, Calif.
|
