UWM Prepares For Showdown With UWGBSept. 29, 2003
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UWM wraps up its longest homestand of the season by welcoming UW-Green Bay to the Klotsche Center for a 7 p.m. contest Friday. Last Week UWM claimed three wins on its home floor, knocking off city-rival Marquette Wednesday night before claiming wins against Horizon League foes Cleveland State and Youngstown State over the weekend. The Panthers needed five games to win Wednesday and four games to win each of the matches over the weekend, but UWM has now won five-straight matches at home. Another Fast Start UWM is 2-0 in league play for the first time since 1999. In each of the previous three seasons, the Panthers split their first two league contests. In 1999, UWM won its first eight league contests before falling to Loyola. A Happy First 30 Days The first "month" of the season actually included two days in August, but with the final match of the month of September now complete, UWM can celebrate its best first month of the season since 1999. The 13 wins tie a record for victories through September for the Panthers, while only the 13-1 mark in 1999 bests this year's 13-3 record. Last September, thanks to an immensely difficult schedule, UWM won just five matches. Year Record 1999 13-1 2003 13-3 1997 11-3 2000 10-3 1998 11-4 Already Talking 20 The Panthers' 13 wins so far this year puts them well within sight of a seventh-straight 20-win campaign. Last year, UWM needed to win the league tournament to get to the 20-win plateau, but this year - not counting any league tournament matches - UWM needs just seven wins in its final 12 matches to secure 20 victories. Countdown To 200 Speaking of victories, UWM head coach Kathy Litzau is just three wins away from claiming 200 in her career. Her overall mark stands at 197-127. Litzau is one of just two coaches in UWM's Division I history. Tom Pleyte won 552 matches in 15 years at UWM, though the bulk of those were spent on the NAIA level and UWM played roughly 60 matches per season. Making A Career Of Marquette A number of Panthers set new career highs in the match with Marquette on Wednesday night. Sarah Potts tallied a career-high 24 kills while Rachel Kuebbing collected a career-best 12 kills. Robin Alt (22) and Melissa Lange (17) set career marks for digs against the Golden Eagles. It was actually a big week for career marks, as Larissa Cattanach set her career mark for kills (23) against Cleveland State and Karen Fruit marked her career high with 23 kills vs. Youngstown State. A Fountain Of Youth Rookie Cheryl Hegemann continues to make her mark as a true freshman for the Panthers, starting all three matches this week. She had 25 kills for the week and also tallied 10 blocks. She set a new career high with 10 kills vs. Cleveland State Friday night and stands sixth on the team in kills and fourth on the team in blocks. Double Trouble Senior Sarah Potts and junior Karen Fruit have been making a habit of reaching double-figures in kills and in tallying double-doubles this year. Potts has 10 double-doubles and has been in double figures in 13 of 16 matches, while Fruit, who missed the first match of the season, has nine double-doubles but has been in double figures in 14 of her 15 matches. Standing Out In The League With two wins in league play this past weekend, the Panthers added to their mark as the league's top team over the past six-plus season. Since 1997, UWM is 69-9 in league play - easily the best mark among league teams. Plus, the Panthers have not finished below second place in the league since the 1996 season. Picked To Win UWM has been selected as the odds-on favorite to win the 2003 Horizon League Volleyball title, according to a poll of the league's coaches. The Panthers were the favorite for the top spot in voting amongst the other league coaches. Loyola, which has won the last two regular-season league titles, was picked to finish second in the league. Nice To Be Home Again UWM is wrapping up a four-match homestand this week, which has only begun to bring its schedule back into some balance. The Panthers played 10 of their first 13 contests away from home and, after this homestand, will play five of their next seven away from Milwaukee. Last year UWM played 12-straight matches away from home to start the season. The Panthers have handled their time away from home pretty well, though, winning three matches on an opponent's home court already this season while also claiming five wins on neutral floors. Crushin' Them In Klotsche UWM has won 71 of its last 77 home matches and won eight of 11 home matches last year. Overall, the home court advantage in the Kathy Litzau era is impressive, with the Panthers compiling a 95-28 mark. Live And Online Fans unable to make it to the Klotsche Center for matches this season live online at www.uwmpanthers.com. The game's statistics and play-by-play reports are posted live as the match progresses, allowing fans at home to follow the action on their computer. Streaking UWM kept winning streaks against all three of last week's opponents alive. The Panthers have now beaten Marquette six-straight times, Youngstown State five-straight times and Cleveland State 18-straight times. The Cleveland State streak dates back to Oct. 27, 1995, while the streak with Marquette goes back to 1997 and the streak with Youngstown State actually goes back to 1993. The two teams did not play between then and 2001. Leading The League As you would expect, UWM finds itself near the top of the league charts in a number of statistical categories. The Panthers lead the Horizon League in kills per game, hitting percentage and assists. Individually, Karen Fruit is third in the league in kills while Sarah Potts stands sixth. Larissa Cattanach (3rd) and Cheryl Hegemann (6th) are in the top 10 for hitting percentage while Lindsey Spoden stands third in assists per game. Tough Slate UWM coach Kathy Litzau put together another difficult non-league slate in 2003 and the Panthers handled it with flying colors. UWM went 4-0 against Conference USA teams, beating Marquette, DePaul, St. Louis and Charlotte, while splitting two matches with teams from the Big 10. Two of UWM's three losses came to nationally-recognized teams, with Minnesota currently standing xx in the latest AVCA poll while Colorado State continues to receive votes in the national poll. Acing The Record Book Test Lindsey Spoden became UWM's all-time leader in service aces Sept. 19 against Charlotte. She added 10 more aces this past weekend and is up to 149 for her career. She passed Laura Dallenbach, who was the all-time leader with 134 aces, and now stands third in the league this season in service aces. Moving Up The Charts A number of other Panthers have been sliding up the career charts at UWM this season. Sarah Potts has moved up to 5th in career kills with 971, while Larissa Cattanach stands 6th with 841. Lindsey Spoden went past 1,000 career digs this past weekend and stand fourth all-time with 1,012. Potts is seventh with 885. Spoden also stands second all-time in assists with 4,587 while Cattanach is up to third in blocks with 299. Triple-Double Your Fun After coming close a number of times over her career, senior setter Lindsey Spoden came through with her first triple-double Sept. 13 against Sacramento State. She tallied 10 kills, 15 digs and 62 assists, with the 10th kill coming as the match-winner in the fifth game. She is the first Panther to record a triple-double since Kristen Fitzgerald did it on Sept. 22, 1996. The triple-double came just four nights after Spoden nearly pulled it off against DePaul, recording 11 kills and 55 assists to go with eight digs. 20-20 Vision Lindsey Spoden wasn't the only Panther to mark a statistical accomplishment at the Powerade Panther Invitational. Sarah Potts and Karen Fruit each entered the 20-20 club for the first time in their careers against Sacramento State. Fruit collected 22 kills and 24 digs while Potts had 21 kills and 24 digs. They became the first pair of Panthers to enter the 20-20 club in the same match since Laura Dallenbach and Chrissy Schurla did it against Butler Nov. 4, 2000. Tourney Titles Everywhere UWM won back-to-back in-season tournament titles this season for the first time since the 1999 season, when the Panthers followed up their title at the Purdue Invitational by winning the Panther Invitational. The title at the Billiken Invitational in the first week of the season was the first title since 2000 for UWM. The Panthers then followed that up by winning the Clarion Westgate Rocket Classic. Panther Tournament Honors With four tournaments during non-league play, a number of Panthers took home hardware for their individual performances. In week one at St. Louis, Lindsey Spoden was named the tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tourney team by Karen Fruit and sophomore Rachel Kuebbing. In week two at Toledo, Larissa Cattanach took home MVP honors and was joined on the all-tournament team by Spoden and Karen Fruit. In week three at the Panther Invitational, Spoden and Potts made the all-tournament team, while in week four at the Diet Coke Classic, Potts was the representative from UWM on the all-tourney squad. Player Of The Week ... Again Lindsey Spoden has already been named the Horizon League Player of the Week twice this season. Along with her triple-double and her 11-kill effort against DePaul, Spoden led the Panthers to three wins and hit nearly .500 Sept. 9-13. She has also moved past 4,400 assists for her career and continues to have a chance to become UWM's all-time assists leader by the end of this season. Spoden was also named the Horizon League Player of the Week after leading the Panthers to three wins in week one. Fast Start UWM's 7-0 start this season was the best by a Panther team since the 1999 season, when UWM opened with a win over ninth-ranked Wisconsin and was eventually 9-0 before dropping a match. The all-time school best is a 12-0 opening in 1988, when the Panthers were still an NAIA team. The best UWM starts: Year Record Finish 1988 12-0 55-9 1999 9-0 25-4 1984 8-0 55-4 2003 7-0 ------ Up Next
UWM returns to the road, heading to Chicago for matches with UIC Friday night and Loyola Saturday afternoon. The next home match for the Panthers is Oct. 17 against Wright State.
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