High School Star to College Standout: Ari Miller

Coming from small-town Jackson, Wisconsin, population 7,000, to the state’s biggest city could have been a tough adjustment. But UW-Milwaukee freshman volleyball player stepped foot on campus, she knew she was in the right place.

“The environment they had, I knew I really liked,” Miller said. “It was like the perfect city location I wanted.”

Miller’s transition from small town to big city and from high school star to college standout have both gone better than expected.

Miller, a two-time Horizon League player of the week is having an incredible first year for the Panthers. Milwaukee has not had a two-time Offensive Player of the Week since Kerri Schuh in 2011. Miller currently leads the Horizon League with a .312 hitting percentage and ranks second on the team with 235 kills.

Milwaukee remains first place of the Horizon League at 7-1 and is halfway through its season with a 20-2 overall record.

Miller’s passion for volleyball started when she was a sophomore in high school, a year before her recruiting process. At the age of 17 Miller had her mind set on attending University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and continuing her career as a member of the Panthers. 

Miller put herself in a great position to pursue her love for volleyball at UW-Milwaukee. She is learning from coaches who have outstanding track records such as Panthers Head Coach Susie Johnson, one of a kind individual that has brought so much success to the Milwaukee volleyball team, with 198 wins in 12 years, 10 NCAA tournament appearances, 13 regular season league titles and five league coach of the year honors.

“(Miller) has a really good work ethic,” Johnson said. “Ari is very coachable too. She wants to be a great player and she opens herself up to learning everyday to working hard everyday and she has done just that in a very short period of time.”

After attending one of their practices, you can tell these set of women have a truly strong bond, which seems like a sisterhood. They support each other through their up tempo and competitive energy in practice as well as in the game. Senior Kylie Wilks has been team captain since the spring semester of her freshman year. 

 “Last year our culture was good,” Wilks said. “It was in a process of a big change and I think we were still dealing with a few growing pains but this year just feels different. I think the intuition of these three new freshmen, they just have awesome personalities.”

Miller says success and the team’s culture are intertwined.

“I like to focus on the team winning too,” Miller said.

The Panthers are home this weekend to take on Youngstown State at 6 p.m. on Friday before battling Cleveland State at 4 p.m. the following day. Miller and the Panthers hope to take another two steps closer to a conference title.