UW-Milwaukee volleyball fell short in their in-city rivalry matchup with Marquette on Tuesday at the Al McGuire Center, losing the contest in straight sets.
The Panthers dropped to 12-10 with the loss, and finished 5-8 in a difficult non-conference slate that included No. 5 Stanford, No. 8 Wisconsin and Iowa. Marquette received votes in the most recent AP NCAA Volleyball poll.
The match ended in the Golden Eagles favor with sets being 25-17, 25-16 and 25-17.
Although the Panthers fell short, Madi Malone had seven kills, two blocks and six kills for both Natalie Schmitz and Czhen Beneby.
“Marquette is a really good team, it’s always really tough to play here,” said Adams. “In general I thought over the weekend we passed a little bit better which is something we are going to re-key on going into this weekend’s matches.”
A highlighted player from the match was defensive specialist Kara Erdmann, who made a lot of outstanding hustle plays as well as seven digs in the first set.
“I was really happy with their effort,” said assistant coach Katie Adams. “We really talked about executing our serve which I think we did at a good level. I was happy with their effort and we had a lot of hustle plays.”
Right side/middle blocker Bri Geurts led the Panthers in the second set with two blocks and five kills. Middle blocker Lakyn Graves also added two major blocks.
“Executing and continuing serving passes at a high level, those are going to be the main things we need to focus on moving forward,” said Adams.
The Golden Eagles’ outside hitters Natalie Ring and Aubrey Hamilton were the standouts on the Marquette side, combining for 25 kills.
Milwaukee begins the second half of league play this weekend, hosting Youngstown State at the Klotsche Center on Friday at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday at 2:00 p.m.