Champion Panthers Head To League TournamentNov. 17, 2003 League Tournament Notes in PDF Format
MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's volleyball team looks to claim its sixth-straight NCAA Tournament berth as the 2003 Horizon League Women's Volleyball Championship gets underway in Indianapolis. The Panthers (24-4, 13-1 Horizon) won the regular season crown for the fifth time under Kathy Litzau with a win at Butler on Friday night, then capped their stellar regular reason with a four-game win at Wright State on Saturday afternoon. Larissa Cattanach was named the Horizon League Player of the Week for sparking UWM's efforts over the weekend. UWM will sit the first day of the tournament, with a new format giving the top two seeds byes into Saturday's semifinals. The Panthers' side of the bracket will include fourth-seeded Butler, fifth-seeded Wright State and eighth-seeded Youngstown State. UWM will play at approximately 3:30 p.m. CST on Saturday. Last Week UWM won its final two matches of the regular season, claiming a five-game win at Butler and a four-game win at Wright State. Friday night at Butler, none of the five games were close as the two teams took turns dominating. The Panthers won the deciding fifth game, 15-5. Saturday at Wright State, the Panthers collected 106 digs and 13 blocks in claiming the four-game victory, their first in Dayton in the last three seasons. A Memorable Regular Season UWM's two wins this past weekend wrapped up a stellar regular season for the Panthers. UWM opened by winning seven-straight matches and, after dropping back-to-back matches to nationally-ranked Colorado State and Minnesota, rattled off 11-straight wins to move into a commanding position in the Horizon League. A loss to Loyola ended the winning streak but a win over UIC the next day clinched a share of the regular season crown. The win Friday over Butler clinched the outright title and Saturday's win over Wright State made it 24 for the regular season. Winning The Title UWM's regular season championship is the first for UWM since the 2000 season and the outright crown is the first for the Panthers since 1999. The Panthers have won five regular season titles under Litzau and have won three league tournament titles. Standing Out In The League In winning their final two matches in league play this past weekend, the Panthers added to their mark as the league's top team over the past seven seasons. Since 1997, UWM is 80-10 in league play - easily the best mark among league teams - meaning UWM has won 89 percent of its league matches. Plus, the Panthers have not finished below second place in the league since the 1996 season. Nearly Unbeaten UWM's 13-1 mark in league play is its best-ever, and the Panthers are just an 18-16, fifth-game loss to Loyola away from being unbeaten in the league. No Horizon League has gone unbeaten during regular-season league play since Notre Dame went 10-0 in 1994. No one has ever gone unbeaten in either a 12 or 14-match schedule, which the league has played since 1995. UWM's 10-0 start in league play was the best it has ever recorded. We'll Take 20 Again UWM has already won 24 matches this season, marking the seventh-straight season the Panthers have won at least 20 matches. Heading into the league tournament, UWM has its sights set on the Division I school record of 25 wins, set in 1997 and repeated in 1998 and 1999. Last year, UWM needed to win the league tournament to get to the 20-win plateau. Tournament Time UWM enters the 2003 Horizon League Volleyball Championship as the two-time defending champion, having swept through the tournament two years ago with three, three-game wins before battling to five-game wins over Wright State and Loyola in claiming the crown last year. UWM has won six-straight tournament matches. The Tournament Notebook UWM is seeded first in the Horizon League Tournament for the first time since the 1999 season, when the Panthers won their semifinal match before dropping a 3-2 decision to Loyola on its home floor in the title contest ... UWM was also the top seed in 1998 and beat Loyola in the title match in five games to win its first league crown ... UWM has been the second seed in each of the last two tournaments ... The Panthers are 12-4 all-time in Horizon League Tournament matches under Kathy Litzau ... This season will mark UWM's eighth-straight appearance in the league tournament semifinals ... The Panthers have faced Cleveland State in their opening match of the last three league tournaments, but this time could only face the Vikings in the championship contest ... UWM has never faced Youngstown State in a tournament match. Among current league members, the Panthers are 3-0 against Cleveland State, 2-0 versus Wright State and UW-Green Bay, 1-0 against UIC, 1-1 versus Butler and 3-2 against Loyola. Playing To Play On The winner of the Horizon League Volleyball Championship gains an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers are aiming for their sixth-straight tournament berth. They haven't always needed the automatic berth to gain entry into the NCAA Tournament, having earned at-large berths in 1999 and 2000. This season, UWM's resume for an at-large berth includes a 24-4 overall record and its regular season title in a league that has been ranked in the top 10 nationally most of this season. Plus, two of UWM's losses have come to nationally-ranked foes Colorado State (14th) and Minnesota (22nd). The Panthers also own four wins over Conference USA squads, a three-game win over Purdue, which stands 7th in the Big 10, and a win over Sacramento State, which finished second in the Big Sky this season. Player Of The Week Senior middle hitter Larissa Cattanach is the Horizon League Player of the Week this week. Cattanach turned in stellar matches on back-to-back days at Butler and Wright State. Friday night at Butler, Cattanach sparked the Panthers with 14 kills and seven blocks. She hit .448 for the match and also contributed five digs. Saturday at Wright State, the senior tallied 19 kills and five more blocks while hitting .444. For the weekend, Cattanach hit .446 and averaged 3.67 kills and 1.33 blocks per game. Cattanach currently stands second on the team in both kills and blocks and is hitting a team-high .315. Potts Pushes Past 1,000 Senior Sarah Potts passed 1,000 kills for her career Saturday at Wright State, becoming just the fourth Panther in the school's Division I history to reach the century mark. She now has 1,004 kills. Potts missed seven matches this season due to a back injury but has returned to play in the last five, making her mark defensively. She has reached double figures in digs in four of those matches and has 956 in her career, putting her within 44 digs of becoming just the third Panther to collect 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career. Quadruple-Double Your Pleasure Senior Lindsey Spoden, who had a triple-double earlier in the season, nearly collected a quadruple-double Saturday against Wright State. She had eight kills and seven blocks to go with 53 assists and 20 digs. Spoden has been a standout defensively for the Panthers, reaching double figures in digs in nine of her last 13 matches. She has 1,167 digs in her career, fourth all-time and just 12 behind Katie Schneider for the most by a setter in UWM history. D...D...D...Defense UWM's defense has been strong all year and it was a big story in the weekend wins at Butler and Wright State. The Panthers had 93 digs and 11 blocks Friday against the Bulldogs and then tallied a season-high 106 digs and 13 blocks Saturday against the Raiders. 20-20 Vision Karen Fruit recorded her third entry into the 20-20 club in her last five matches with a 20-kill, 23-dig effort against Wright State Saturday. Fruit also tallied a 20-20 effort against Loyola a week earlier and recorded 20-20 nights against Sacramento State in September and UW-Green Bay in October. Fruit is the first Panther to have four 20-20 matches in a season since Laura Dallenbach recorded six in the 2000 season. Dallenbach had nine 20-20 efforts in her career, the most in UWM history, and is the only other Panther besides Fruit to record 20-20 statlines in consecutive matches. Fruit's four 20-20 efforts tie her with Ericka Malterer for the second-most all-time at UWM. A Welcome Assist Senior Lindsey Spoden is just the second Panther in the school's Division I history to pass 5,000 assists for her career. Spoden now has 5,128 assists, still on the heels of the all-time mark of 5,276 held by Katie Schneider. Spoden has 1,278 assists this season, the fifth-best single season all-time and the second-best single-season in Spoden's career. Special Single-Seasons A number of Panthers have made their mark in the UWM single-season records thanks to their efforts in 2003. Karen Fruit has 442 kills this season, the third-most in a single season by a Panther. Ericka Malterer's 453 in 1998 lead the way with Sarah Potts' 450 from last season close behind. Fruit's 398 digs are tied for third-most in a single season. Fruit is 47 off the all-time mark of 445 owned by Laura Dallenbach. Larissa Cattanach has a .315 attack percentage, second-best in school history. Chrissy Schurla recorded a .329 attack percentage in 1999. Also, Lindsey Spoden now holds the single-season service ace record with 49. Moving Up The Charts A number of Panthers have been sliding up the career charts at UWM this season. Lindsey Spoden became the all-time service ace leader earlier this year. Sarah Potts has moved up to 5th in career kills with 1,004, while Larissa Cattanach stands 6th with 974 and Karen Fruit is 7th with 819. Spoden went past 1,000 career digs a month ago and stands fourth all-time with 1,177. Potts is seventh with 956. Spoden also stands second all-time in assists with 5,128 while Cattanach is third in blocks with 346. Counting To 800 The Nov. 8 win over UIC was the 800th in the recorded history of Panther volleyball. UWM started a volleyball program in 1973 and moved to the Division I level in 1990. UWM has won 239 matches as a Division I program. Happiness Away From Home UWM spent plenty of time on the road this season but found a lot of success outside of Milwaukee. The Panthers went a perfect 7-0 in road league matches and 10-1 in road matches overall. UWM was also 5-1 on neutral floors. Crushin' Them In Klotsche UWM wrapped up another successful season at home, winning nine of its 11 matches at the Klotsche Center. Overall, the Panthers have won 75 of their last 82 home matches. The home court advantage in the Kathy Litzau era is impressive, with the Panthers compiling a 99-29 mark. Streak Stopper UWM saw its season-high 11-match winning streak snapped Nov. 7 in its loss to Loyola. The streak was the third-longest in UWM's Division I history. The Division I school record is 14, set in 1997 and repeated again in 2000. UWM did have 12-match win streaks in 1998 and 1999. 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 hitting percentage while standing third in kills per game and assists. Individually, Karen Fruit is third in the league in kills while Sarah Potts stands eighth. Larissa Cattanach and Cheryl Hegemann are in the top 10 for hitting percentage while Lindsey Spoden stands third in assists per game. Celebrating 200 UWM head coach Kathy Litzau claimed her 200th career win Oct. 11 at Loyola. Her overall mark stands at 208-127. Litzau is one of just two coaches in UWM's Division I history and is easily the winningest. Loving October UWM once again made sure October was its best month of the season. The Panthers won all eight of their matches in the month, pushing their October record in the last seven seasons to 57-4. UWM has also posted unbeaten Octobers in 1999 (7-0) and 2000 (9-0). UWM went 8-1 last October, with its only loss coming to nationally-ranked Northern Iowa. 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 Colorado State standing 14th in the latest AVCA and poll and Minnesota back into the poll at 22nd. Illinois State, the team responsible for UWM's other loss, is near the top of the Missouri Valley. 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 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. Picked To Win UWM was selected as the odds-on favorite to win the 2003 Horizon League Volleyball title, according to a poll of the league's coaches, and played up to form. Loyola and UW-Green Bay also played up form after being picked for second and third in the pre-season. Panther Players Of The Week Lindsey Spoden was 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. Karen Fruit also won the honor for UWM following a 20-20 effort in a win at UW-Green Bay. 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 A Happy First 30 Days The first "month" of the season actually included two days in August, but UWM celebrated 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 the included six NCAA Tournament participants and 12-straight matches away from home, UWM won just five matches. Streaking UWM have active winning streaks against a number of this season's opponents. The Panthers have now beaten Marquette six-straight times, Youngstown State six-straight times 15-straight against UIC and Cleveland State 19-straight times. The Cleveland State streak dates back to Oct. 27, 1995, while the streak with Marquette and UIC 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, before Youngstown joined the Horizon League. Up Next
The Panthers hope to be playing on into the NCAA Tournament, which begins the first week of December at 16 campus sites. The field of 64 will be announced Sunday, Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. CST on ESPNEWS.
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