The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women’s volleyball team claimed a 30-26, 33-31, 30-23 win over the UW-Green Bay Phoenix Friday night in the regular season finale for both teams.

The Panthers (20-8 overall, 12-2 Horizon) had three players reach double figures in kills for the match with senior Rachel Kuebbing leading the way with a match-high 21 kills.

Junior Melissa David added 13 kills, while Junior Sarah Moore had 10 kills with no errors.

The defense, which has been strong for UWM all season, continued to be a strength, holding UWGB to only a .113 hitting percentage for the match.

Freshman Becky Peters led the defensive charge with 29 digs in only three games. It was her 18th straight match with double figures in digs. She also became the first Panther player ever to record more than 500 digs, finishing the game with 506 on the year.

UWM also had 13 blocks to anchor the defense.

UWM has now won the Horizon League title for the third straight year, after it started the conference season 0-2. They suffered consecutive road loses at Illinois-Chicago and then at Loyola-Chicago.

After those two loses they went on to win the rest of their league games, making it 12 straight league wins. They also swept their opponents in the last five league matches of the season. This title also makes it head coach Kathy Litzou’s seventh Horizon League title as head coach at UWM.

As the top seed for next week's league tournament, UWM receives a bye into the semifinals, which will be played Saturday afternoon. The tournament starts Thursday, Nov. 17, at the Illinois-Chicago Athletic Center in Chicago.

In addition, junior Cheryl Hegemann has been named to ESPN: The Magazine's Academic All-District Team by the College Sports Information Directors Association of America.

In the classroom, Hegemann has compiled a 3.83 GPA while majoring in education. She has been a regular on both the Horizon League honor roll and UWM's dean's list. On the court, Hegemann is the team leader in kills while ranking second on the team in blocks.

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