Coming to an End

Katelyn Hegewald, the student-manager of the team, takes over the Milwaukee Volleyblog on a full-time basis in 2014.

Self-described as "that girl who sits on the bench and catches scarves, books, pens and sometimes even heavy necklaces that Susie throws when she gets frustrated," she will be writing the blog every week for the team and the many endeavors they encounter.

Today is her 10th installment for 2014.

You could say that this weekend was a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster. The weekend started out on Friday as we took on the Youngstown State Penguins and what a game that was. We started the end of our last home conference weekend with an exciting win. We beat the Guins in four, with senior Julie Kolinski coming out on top with an impressive 20 kills. Other Panthers that helped with the W were Myanna Ruiz who had 15 kills, along with teammate Maggie Dunbar making her usual noise with 14 kills, two aces and a block. Friday night we also celebrated 'Parents Night' with the traditional calling out of everyone on the team as they as walked out by their parents.

Saturday we played Cleveland State and it was a tough one. Cleveland State was pretty close to flawless and we unfortunately were not. We lost in four, but not without a fight. Julie led the team with 12 kills and three of the teams seven blocks, while Ruiz tallied nine kills and an ace. Nicole Latzig wasn’t going down without a fight as she got eight kills and the rest of the four blocks that the team had on the night. Saturday night was also 'Senior Night', where all six of this years seniors were honored, Julie, Taylor, Hannah, Arianna, Amber and myself.

We don’t usually meet on Sundays, but this last Sunday was our Senior Banquet and let me tell you what, no one left that restaurant dry-eyed. An amazing banquet put on by the coaches to honor the six of us seniors. Players from the team had the most outstanding speeches to give about all of us and Susie did as well. All seniors then made a speech themselves, and believe me when I say, I tried to make mine as funny as possible in order to not cry, but there were some serious crocodile tears up there.

We still have a lot of season to go. We are away this weekend to close up conference play against Oakland on Friday and Wright State Saturday. The follow weekend we will have conference tournament, we are unsure of where the location is going to be, we will see at the end of the weekend to see who takes the title, and then back to the NCAA tournament, maybe? I just wanted to thank all of you that read this blog and have for the last two years, you all are so great and I appreciate all the support you all give me. Let’s finish this season with a bang!

Closing Out October

Katelyn Hegewald, the student-manager of the team, takes over the Milwaukee Volleyblog on a full-time basis in 2014.

Self-described as "that girl who sits on the bench and catches scarves, books, pens and sometimes even heavy necklaces that Susie throws when she gets frustrated," she will be writing the blog every week for the team and the many endeavors they encounter.

Today is her ninth installment for 2014.

This weekend was a quick one! Friday we played our travel partners, UW-Green Bay, so it was just a hop, skip and a jump away for us and then no game on Saturday.

Nikki and I started off the trip going up the the Applebee's in Bayshore to pick up lunch for the team, we arrived to find everyones order separated into over twenty individual bags. Needless to say, when we pulled up to the bus at the Park and Ride my little Chevy Cavalier looked pretty packed with little white bags. In any case, if you are in need (for whatever reason) of over twenty bags that say Applebee's on them, let me know, I think I know where I can find some.

It was a packed bus, Susie's family rode with us, our good friend Will, who was our volunteer assistant two years ago, Charlie from athletics, and then the regular travelers. We got to the gym with a lot of time to spare so Ty (Susie’s son) and I played are traditional short-court game. Last time we played things got pretty heated at the end of the game, and Ty, with his unbelievable athletic ability for a 6th grader, and the totally athletic ability I don’t have anymore, Ty won the game. Naturally, it was time for a rematch. It was an outstanding match and I ended up taking the W, so now we are 1-1 on the season, a tie-breaking game will be in the near future, stay tuned for details on that!

But, you probably are wondering how the actual game went ... not about the game Ty and I were viciously playing. The game was so much fun! I had such a great time being courtside watching the team collectively just be awesome. We came out, took care of business and swept the Phoenix. Again, if you weren’t there it was truly a fun game to watch (not that I don’t have fun at all the other games, because believe me, I do!). We got out of the gym and back onto the bus with seven large pizzas and were headed on our way back home!

The season is coming close to tournament time!! I don’t know about any of you, but I am for sure getting pumped. This week is jam packed, we have our last conference and non-conference home matches. Tuesday night we will take on cross town rival Marquette (at 7 pm) and then don’t forget Friday is Parents Night, where we will be taking on the Penguins of Youngstown at 7 pm and then Saturday at 4 pm we will play Cleveland State, and that match we will be honoring this years seniors: Julie Kolinski, Taylor Golabowski, Hannah Blanchard, Amber Simonton and Arianna Wiersma. Hope to see you guys Tuesday!

Second Half Starts

Katelyn Hegewald, the student-manager of the team, takes over the Milwaukee Volleyblog on a full-time basis in 2014.

Self-described as "that girl who sits on the bench and catches scarves, books, pens and sometimes even heavy necklaces that Susie throws when she gets frustrated," she will be writing the blog every week for the team and the many endeavors they encounter.

Today is her eighth installment for 2014.

We went into the weekend tied for first with Oakland and Youngstown, with Valpo and UIC tied for second. We traveled to Valpo and Chicago for a weekend of wins.

We headed down to Valpo on Friday and, as usual, stopped at the always-amazing Portillos. I am thankful for about a million things since I started doing this four years ago, but getting introduced to Portillos might be be in the top ten. So after the quick drive and pit stop for food, we ended up getting to the gym a little bit early, maybe not a little bit, more like almost two hours. The weather was gorgeous so the team got off the bus and started playing some old schoolyard games, which was a sight to see.

We got into the gym and Susie had everyone line up on the end line, a relay race was coming. After a very entertaining relay race, we played against the Crusaders and won in four. We got out of dodge and then got to our super-awesome hotel that had a pool with a waterfall right when you walked in the door (sorry, I am still secretly a 7-year-old at heart). The hotel also had a Starbucks inside of it which is pretty dangerous for me, I promised myself I wouldn’t get any, so naturally you could find me in line Saturday morning before we left.

Saturday we drove from Valpo to UIC and again, was a little early, so we took advantage of the unbelievable nice weather and spent a little bit more time outside in the Windy City. Another relay race, and a three-set match later we were on our way home with another victory. This makes us now tied for first with Oakland going into a one-match weekend against Green Bay on Friday.

As Maisey and I were sitting on the UIC bench, I remember turning to her and saying “God, I love this program.” I am not entirely sure of the play, but I am pretty sure it was a hard serve that Taylor passed beautifully out of her body line, Kayla did that really cool thing where she slides on her knees while setting a perfect set and Julie was there to slam it home. I turned to Maisey with the biggest smile on my face and again told her how much I love Milwaukee Volleyball. It was an outstanding weekend and I loved being apart of every single second of it.

Down in the Books

Katelyn Hegewald, the student-manager of the team, takes over the Milwaukee Volleyblog on a full-time basis in 2014.

Self-described as "that girl who sits on the bench and catches scarves, books, pens and sometimes even heavy necklaces that Susie throws when she gets frustrated," she will be writing the blog every week for the team and the many endeavors they encounter.

Today is her seventh installment for 2014.

This past week may have gone down in the books as one of my favorite weekends of these past four seasons.

I know I say that all the time, but seriously, so many shout outs this week! We started the week out with Western Michigan coming over and playing us Tuesday night, and what a game! If you missed the game just know that it was absolutely an outstanding game. A huge shout out goes to junior right-side Maggie Dunbar for getting her career high 20 kills against the Broncos. It was pretty awesome seeing basically every other ball Maggie touched be a kill. Way to go, Maggie. Another shout out from Tuesday nights game goes out to Hannah Blanchard who is currently tearing it up in the middle. We beat the Broncos and called it a night, and got back in the gym Wednesday for the weekend.

Friday we played our 'Go Pink' match against Wright State, who didn’t go down easy, but it was such a fun game to watch! We rallied against the Raiders and won in four. Senior outside Julie Kolinski lead the Panthers with 25 kills on the night. Susie agreed and commented at the end of the match that Wright State played well that we really had to earn that win.

Saturday night we wrapped up the three match week by playing Oakland, who is battling with us at the top for first place. We took the first set of the match, but Oakland would take the next three. Sophomore Myanna Ruiz and Kolinski both had 14 kills on the night, while junior Nicole Latzig made some noise with her 4 blocks and 11 kills, not to mention junior Kayla Prices seasons-best 55 assists.

In regards to the entire week, I believe that Susie said it best in her post match interview against Oakland: "They (Oakland) came to play, when you are the team to beat, it is very hard to win and play hard every single time. It's very hard and challenging, so we will be back to work on Monday."

So there you have it, the first half of conference play has come to an end. We will travel to Valparaiso on Friday and then head to UIC Saturday. I can not believe how fast this season is going! Only a couple weeks until the conference tournament, and as it stands now we are tied for first with Oakland and Youngstown. Hope to see you guys this weekend to kick off the second half of conference play!

Quiet Week

Katelyn Hegewald, the student-manager of the team, takes over the Milwaukee Volleyblog on a full-time basis in 2014.

Self-described as "that girl who sits on the bench and catches scarves, books, pens and sometimes even heavy necklaces that Susie throws when she gets frustrated," she will be writing the blog every week for the team and the many endeavors they encounter.

Today is her sixth installment for 2014.

We’ve got a short one this week folks. This weekend we only played one game and that was against in state-rivals and travel partner UW-Green Bay. But before we get into that, I’d like to just give a giant shout-out to the wonderful Green Bay Packers as they did work Thursday night and took care of the Vikings. Sorry to all you Minnesota people out there, gotta give credit where credit is due, you know?

Anywho, Friday night we took on the Phoenix of Green Bay. They were coming off of a tough first conference weekend as they lost to Valpo in three last Friday and lost to UIC in five Saturday night. It was bound to be a good match, and it sure was.

If you were at the game you probably noticed something about our bench. It’s packed. Like jam-packed. Three years ago when I started being the manager here, I had all the leg room you could imagine, really I could lay down across the chairs if I wanted to, I wouldn’t, but I could. This year, it’s a little bit of a tight squeeze and I am loving it! Our bench is full of some pretty great people and not only that but if anyone ever misses a play when taking stats they’ve got someone on each shoulder that they can ask for a replay of what just happened. It’s a full bench, but it sure is a fun bench, especially when Susie walks through and sings along to a song or cracks a joke.

We beat the Phoenix in four and are looking to move on to next weekends matches because it is our long conference haul. This coming weekend we are out in Ohio to take on Cleveland State and Youngstown State. Before I leave you there is one more order of business on the shout-out list that must be brought up. Over the last couple weeks a huge congrats goes out to senior libero Taylor Golabowski on reaching her 1,000th dig and senior outside Julie Kolinski on reaching her 1,000th kill! Great job ladies, and great job Milwaukee Volleyball!

Until next time...

Horizon League Kicks Off

Katelyn Hegewald, the student-manager of the team, takes over the Milwaukee Volleyblog on a full-time basis in 2014.

Self-described as "that girl who sits on the bench and catches scarves, books, pens and sometimes even heavy necklaces that Susie throws when she gets frustrated," she will be writing the blog every week for the team and the many endeavors they encounter.

Today is her fifth installment for 2014.

This past weekend was the start of the conference regular season and the Milwaukee Panthers were at home! Friday night we played UIC and Saturday against Valpo. I wasn't at the games this weekend, but you better believe I was watching. My best friend, Beth, cycles for Marian University in Indianapolis and this past weekend was her nationals. It is her senior year and they were hosting, so I made the drive down to watch her race.

Friday, after being at the track and in the sun all day I had a mini heart attack around 7 pm. I went to go watch the game on my computer and there was no stream or anything. I must have been outside too long because I instantly started thinking to myself, what day is it? What time is it, really? Am I even on the right website?! I then laughed at myself when I realized I was in a different time zone and it was really only 6 pm in Milwaukee and I still had another hour until the game started.

Then 8 o’clock rolled around and you could have pointed me out like a sore thumb in the crowd. Here is everyone in the stands with their pom-poms and cowbells and I was the only one in the stands with a giant laptop on their lap continuously looking down at it and then looking back up to cheer on whichever Marian racer was racing at that time. But it was well worth it, because I not only got to see Beth get bronze in her first event, but I also got to see us get our first conference win of the season!

Saturday was a little bit easier because by then, I was used to the time change, but I was leaving, so naturally I had yet another moment of confusion. By the time the game started I was already getting ready to head back home, so I had to watch the game through the Horizon League App. Which, if you don’t have that app you should definitely think about getting it! It is a great way to keep up with all Milwaukee sports and scores, you can stream games live, and it’s free! I made sure my phone was fully charged, plugged it into the AUX cord in my car and got ready to hear the entire game.

It was so intense hearing the game and not knowing what was happening exactly when it was happening! I mean, it was only a couple seconds behind but still! Also, I was driving through the fields of Northern Indiana so it’s not like my 4G was exactly perfect when streaming. It was cutting in and out, of course in the fifth game when it was tied 9-9. So I’m in the car, alone, set 5, game tied at 9-9 and the game freezes on my phone. Here I am, both hands 12 and 6 on the wheel (sorry mom and dad, I don’t drive 10-2 anymore) and it freezes. Naturally I start yelling at no one, telling my phone to please find a connection, and asking if my phone was actually serious right now? I’m pretty sure the van next to me full of an entire family thought I was a little bit weird when they looked over and saw me talking to myself. It was frozen for about 4 minutes, which felt like about 3 hours to me. The connection finally came back at match point and I got to hear us win in 5! It was an awesome weekend and we played awesome on top of it. We are now 2-0 in conference to start and we will be home again this Friday to play Green Bay! Can’t wait to see you all there!

Preseason 2014 Comes To An End

Katelyn Hegewald, the student-manager of the team, takes over the Milwaukee Volleyblog on a full-time basis in 2014.

Self-described as "that girl who sits on the bench and catches scarves, books, pens and sometimes even heavy necklaces that Susie throws when she gets frustrated," she will be writing the blog every week for the team and the many endeavors they encounter.

Today is her fourth installment for 2014.

This weekend ended our 2014 preseason and marks the start of our conference regular season. We drove out to East Lansing, Michigan on Thursday, I’m not sure if it’s because we’ve been traveling so much these past three weeks, but the bus ride really seemed like a hop-skip-and a jump away. We popped in a couple movies, did a little homework and bam, we were there.

Our first game of the weekend we meet up with Conference USA’s Western Kentucky once again. We put up a fight against the Hilltoppers, but they were able to take us for a win. We went out for some lunch and came back into the gym completely prepared to take on the Northeast Conference powerhouse LIU-Brooklyn (Long Island University). We were able to take on the challenge of the Blackbirds and won the match in three. It wasn’t a matter of a thirty seconds of Susie getting on the bus after the big win before she grabbed the microphone and started playing songs so everyone could sing along. Freshman, Mykie Olsen, impressed the whole bus as she beautifully sang “Summertime” from the Disney Channel’s hit movie High School Musical (truly a fan favorite).

We didn’t play until 7 pm on Saturday so we had the whole day to kill. We all got to sleep in and made our way down to breakfast, did a little homework, maybe snuck a little napper-nap in, but then it was mall time. There was a pretty sweet outdoor mall about one minute from our hotel so we headed on over. We all got our shopping partners and made our way to basically all the stores. East Lansing must have known that 20 professional shoppers were coming to town cause the deals were all ready for us and we spent half the time of our dinner at Champs showing each other what we all bought.

We got back to the gym to watch LIU-Brooklyn beat Western Kentucky. Then we got prepared to take on the Spartans. We worked hard in entire match but fell short and the Spartans would come out with the W. This has been a great preseason and has really made us tough and focused to start conference this weekend. On that note, we are at home this weekend!! We take on the UIC Flames on Friday at 7 and Valparaiso Saturday at 4. Students get in for free so feel free to make your way on over Friday and Saturday night! Looking forward to seeing all of you there and to get the 2014 conference play started! Until next time…

“No team works without teamwork.” -Dwayne Wade