The UW Oshkosh women’s volleyball team won its second consecutive conference game in Platteville on Wednesday night to improve its overall record to 14-3 and 2-0 in conference. The Titans’ have two nationally ranked teams ahead on its schedule, but head coach Brian Schaefer said that the team needs to stay focused on one game at a time. “Platteville is our main goal right now,” Schaefer said. “We have to start conference play 2-0.” The match against Platteville is the Titans first conference game on the road, and Schaefer said he knows that there will be high intensity. “This is our first marquee, single game on the road in conference,” Schaefer said. “We will have freshman in the starting lineup and they have to be ready to perform.” Freshman Tina Elstner has recently been inserted in the starting lineup, and she said upperclassmen have told her what to expect during conference games. “It’s really competitive, and we have to get ready for that,” Elstner said. “We have to come out stronger in the beginning and be excited to play.” After coming off a win to UW-Whitewater one week ago, junior Lexi Thiel said they have a lot of momentum continuing into the second half of the season. “It was a staple win for our conference play,” Thiel said. “We have confidence we can beat any team that we put our minds to.” In volleyball, teams normally don’t have the opportunity to get a whole week off in between matches. Schaefer said it was nice that the girls were able to let the win against Whitewater set in before playing Platteville. “You can definitely tell smiles are still on their faces,” Schaefer said. “It was a cool experience for them and they should be proud.” UWO fell to the Pioneers in Platteville last year in the regular season, but defeated them at home in the first round of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. For the second year in a row, Oshkosh draws Platteville at its place and Schaefer said the game a year ago really upset the players. “Being a year older helps,” Schaefer said. “We just have to come out focused and the returners will know how important this is.” The Pioneers tied the first set early at three and went on a 12-2 run to go ahead by 10, which marked its largest lead. UWO came within one at 23-24, but Platteville won on set point from a service error. Set two was tied for the final time at 19 when Platteville scored the next six out of nine points to go ahead 2-0. The Titans were able to hold a late lead of 21-17 in set three and fend off a tie at 22 to defeat the Pioneers by three to avoid a sweep. The fourth set was tied at 17 when UWO went on a 4-0 run to take the lead for good to force a fifth set for the second game in a row. Platteville raced out to a 5-1 lead in the fifth set. After five ties and the final time coming at 11, the Titans scored four out of the next five points to defeat the Pioneers 3-2 with sets of 23-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-21 and 15-12. Senior Katelyn Malcheski led all players with a season high 20 kills. Thiel recorded 54 assists and senior Mandy Trautmann recorded 27 digs. Schaefer said that he believes the team looks different after winning its first two conference games and that will carry them into its upcoming road trip. “All three teams in practice were playing at high levels,” Schaefer said. “Sometimes there’s one match that sets the tone for your season and hopefully that’s Whitewater.” The 19th- ranked Titans travel to Colorado over the weekend where they play 15th- ranked Elmhurst College (Ill.), 9th- ranked Colorado College and Cornell College (Iowa) .