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Learning along the way
Youthful Panthers break deficit to beat Loyola
By Nicole Thom
Who says a young team has to play like one?
Head Coach Susie Johnson and her UW-Milwaukee volleyball team showed experience beyond their years Tuesday night as they held off Loyola in an 18-25, 25-22, 25-14, 25-23 win at the Klotsche Center.
After dropping the first set, the Panthers (11-5, 4-1) bounced back to take the next three and win the match. Senior Becky Peters led the team with 15 kills, followed by freshman Kerri Schuh with nine.
“This is an extremely inexperienced team, and they are getting experience every time they play,” Johnson said. “But it is really kind of cool to see them be sponges and learn as they go. They didn’t look like an inexperienced team and I am really, really proud of them.”
The Panthers’ defense and blocking started slow, but the team seemed to come out strong after the break. Lauren Felsing extended her digging streak to 41-straight games in double-digits with 19 digs, though it looked as though she might not extend the streak through the first two games.
“Their hitters were hitting, our block was not really adjusting very well and it is really hard to play defense behind an undisciplined block,” said Johnson about Felsing in the first set. “I think that is really what it was; it wasn’t[Felsing].”
The first set began with a quick lead by the Panthers. Loyola (13-5, 3-3) would not give up easily though, and they fought back to tie the game at 14. The Panthers managed to keep it close late into the set, but they couldn’t hold off the Ramblers. Loyola scored the last six points of the set to take a 1-0 lead.
The Panthers had to work hard in the second set to come back from a sizeable Rambler lead. The game remained tight with both teams trading points left and right. A final push by Milwaukee closed the set with a thunderous block by Mary Beth O’Brien and Maddie Sueppel.
Milwaukee went right to work in the third set. They took the lead for good at 6-5 and didn’t look back. Loyola would never get within six. The Panthers stepped up their blocking game, and Sueppel showed her dominance at the end of the game with a big kill and block to close things out. Milwaukee advanced to a 2-1 lead with the quick win.
The Panthers showed determination in the fourth and final set. Despite having the lead for most of the game, Milwaukee could not seem to shake Loyola. The Ramblers kept creeping within a point of the Panthers until Schuh had enough and ended the game with a fierce kill.
“That was a great match because they were actually really good,” said Johnson. “After what happened on Friday at Green Bay, we sort of hit a little bit of a rock bottom and we came back up three days later, so that was really good.”
The Panthers will host Wright St. on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Klotsche Center. The Panthers beat the Raiders 3-1 in their last match-up.
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