When the UW-Milwaukee volleyball team came home last week, they were limping back from a five-match losing streak. To say they needed to turn things around would be a bit of an understatement.

But this weekend, that’s exactly what they did.

On Friday night, the Panthers played host to the University of Illinois–Chicago. In a thrilling five-set performance (21-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-27, 17-15), Milwaukee was able to rebound against a team that had swept them early this season and get back into their style of play.

“I’m so proud of my team,” coach Susie Johnson said. “We had to do a 180 from Sunday…and that was a 180. We haven’t been home, so people haven’t been able to see our team play. We haven’t fought like this at all, and this was fight today. UIC was really good today and we had to take it from them. I’m just so proud of them. They never gave up.”

If the first four sets weren’t enough for fans to get back into caring about UWM volleyball, the fifth should have pushed them over the edge. The Panthers fought off a pair off match-points in an awe-inspiring fashion that drew standing ovations from both sets of fans before seeing the final ball hit the floor for the UWM win.

“They (the team) have to believe in themselves; they really have to decide they want it,” coach Johnson said. “I can’t make them do it. They’re deciding the outcome and they’re really doing a great job.

“We were doing a different offense, a faster offense, and we had to implement it and take a risk today because our backs were against the wall and we did it, so I’m really proud of them for that.”

Using that momentum, the Panthers went into Saturday’s annual “Pink Out” match and beat Loyola 3-1 in front of 1,037 fans, the second-largest crowd in school history.

Jena Berg and Kerri Schuh led the Panthers with 31 and 30 kills, respectively, between the two matches.

Milwaukee is now 7-14 overall and 4-6 in conference and have just one game this week: a home match against in-state rival Green Bay Friday.