COVERITLIVE.COM

11:45

We're courtside at Woodling Gymnasium for today's Horizon League Volleyball championship match between Milwaukee and Cleveland State.

11:47

The Panthers have won 10 in a row entering today's contest, including an impressive three-set win over Valpo in the semifinals yesterday. Meanwhile, Cleveland State is the regular season league champion and knocked off UIC in four sets yesterday. UWM is the defending tournament champion, having beaten Cleveland State in five sets in this very gym last season.

11:48

I posted some additional notes in our Verizon Wireless BlogZone earlier, but here they are again ...

- Milwaukee is seeking its sixth league tournament title and its eighth NCAA Tournament berth.

- The Panthers are making their eighth appearance in the tournament title match.

- UWM enters the contest with a 10-match winning streak. The Panthers have had a winning streak of seven or more matches in 13-straight season.

- UWM and Cleveland State split their two regular season matches, with each team winning on its homecourt. The Panthers were swept in Cleveland before claiming a four-set win at the Klotsche Center.

- Overall, UWM owns a 34-7 edge in the series with wins in 30 of the last 33 meetings between the two teams.

- Lauren Felsing had 15 digs to move past Becky Peters atop UWM’s all-time digs list. Felsing now has 1,889 digs, giving her a great chance to become the first-ever Panther to collect 1,900 digs in a Division I career.

- Natalie Schmitting’s 11 blocks Saturday marked a collegiate-high.

- The 17 total blocks were the best in a three-set match this season for the Panthers. UWM actually had 16 blocks in a four-set win over Valpo a week ago and 15 in the five-set loss at Valpo in October.

11:49

It should be a good crowd today - obviously very pro-Cleveland. The Vikings even have their band here, but oddly they are sitting quietly in the corner looking bored right now. I assume they will be playing music at some point - I presume we can't interrupt the usual volleyball warm-up music.

11:51

And, yes, you can again follow the action via gametracker, or watch live video through the Horizon League Network. Wisconsin's own Matt Menzl has the play-by-play call of the action today - he is actually seated right next to me. He said he's been in Ohio for something like 10 of the last 12 days, having done GB men's basketball at Kent State last weekend and the Division III Volleyball Championships here in the Cleveland area this week.

11:53

UWM was very excited about its win yesterday and the opportunity to play for the championship today. The Panthers have come an amazingly long way since early October, when they were 5-14 and in eighth place.

11:54

The Panthers were so good on the block yesterday and got a good look at the Vikings in the win over UIC. Plus, the last regular season meeting was just two weeks ago, so there are really no secrets remaining. UWM has a pretty good idea of what it need to do to slow a Cleveland State attack that can be very potent.

11:57

We should be about 7-8 minutes away from the start ... about 2 minutes left in warmups and then we'll do the anthems and lineups.

12:04

The lineups are being introduced now with the anthem to follow. Nothing out of the ordinary for either of the lineups ... UWM starts with what I guess you would call an "offensive" rotation, with Kerri Schuh and Mary Beth O'Brien on the floor to start. Of course, the usual defensive subs of Morgan Potter and Lauren Hintze will come in rotation.

12:04

The anthem is complete from the CSU band and we should be underway momentarily.

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