Horizon League Volleyball Scoreboard (Sept. 24)
Green Bay 3, Youngstown State 1
Milwaukee 3, Oakland 2
Green Bay 3, Youngstown State 1
The Green Bay volleyball team (10-4, 1-0) carried its hot start to the season into conference play on Thursday night, defeating Youngstown State in four sets (25-18, 17-25, 25-18, 25-20) in the Horizon League opener at the Beeghly Center in Youngstown, Ohio.
“It’s a great start," said head coach Sean Burdette following the win. "Everyone was starting fresh here in conference and all records are thrown out the door."
"Our result tonight and the Milwaukee-Oakland result (3-2 UWM) was probably different than a lot of people thought, but it’s the Horizon League and every night is a battle.”
Megan Powers tallied 15 kills to lead the way for the Phoenix, while Lydia DeWeese (11 kills/.458 hitting percentage) and Samantha Anthon (10 kills) served as key contributors on the offensive end as well.
Green Bay won the opening set after hitting .209 as a team, while holding the Penguins to just .119. After Youngstown State answered in a nearly identical fashion in set No. 2, the Phoenix closed out the match by grabbing early leads in the third and fourth frames, which were capped off by kills from Powers and DeWeese, respectively.
“Matches are all about adjustments and how you handle them,” said Burdette. “Youngstown State did a very nice job after that first set and did some different things. We made some personnel change and were able to get back on course and kept the pressure on.”
The Penguins committed 23 errors to Green Bay's 20, while the Phoenix recorded edges in both total blocks (16-10) and service aces (5-3). Sophomore Beth Kuske paced all players with nine blocks.
Appearing in their final conference openers, seniors Emily Riese (46 assists) and Jillian Bauer (20 digs) also played pivotal roles for Green Bay.
Milwaukee 3, Oakland 2
Kaisa Mattson and Maggie Dunbar were dominant at the net to lead the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee volleyball team to a well-deserved, 3-2 win at Oakland University Thursday night from the O'rena.
Milwaukee (3-10, 1-0 Horizon League) stormed out to a 2-0 lead before having to dig deep and fend off the defending league champ Golden Grizzlies (6-9, 0-1 HL) for a 25-21, 25-21, 20-25, 22-25, 15-13 win.
"We really came to play today. That was a gutsy win," Milwaukee head coach Susie Johnson said. "I'm very proud of this team. They had to battle. We played like a team today. There were hard times. Oakland is a good team and they turned it on and we had to counter. Kaisa and Maggie were incredible. We were able to push back and fight hard to the finish."
Mattson was dominant from start to finish, imposing her will for a career-high 21 kills – surpassing her previous best of 14 accomplished at Oakland last season.
Dunbar also was on fire at the net with 19 kills – her seventh time reaching double figures in kills this season.
Kayla Price also had a strong performance, dishing out 58 assists on the night. That total is just four shy of her career high.
Five Panthers reached double figures in digs in a total-team effort defensively. Myanna Ruiz led the way with a career-high 36 digs to lead all players. Dunbar and Mykie Olsen both also had career highs with 17 and 14 digs. Price pitched in with a season-high 18 to join Dunbar with a double-double and Maddie Schmitz added 11.
Milwaukee never trailed in set number one, led by a stellar opening frame by Mattson. The junior had six kills on just seven attempts for a remarkable .857 hitting percentage to cruise to an opening-set win.
The Panthers had to battle in the second. Oakland claimed leads of 7-4 and 16-12, but UWM refused to quit. Milwaukee rattled off eight of the next nine points to jump up 20-17 on a kill by senior Sammi Herron, and they would never look back from there.
The Golden Grizzlies came out of the break and pushed back. UWM didn't make it easy, but Oakland was able to take sets three and four.
In the deciding fifth set, it was back and forth the whole way. OU held a 13-11 edge late before Milwaukee took over. An Oakland error started the run, followed by back-to-back kills by Mattson. With the game on the line, freshman Celine Jones hammered home the winner to give the Panthers a 1-0 start to league play. Milwaukee hit an outstanding .529 in the final set to spark the win.
