The UW Oshkosh women’s volleyball team is back on a five-game winning streak after an unbeaten four game invitational in Oshkosh on the weekend of Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 improving their record to 16-3 overall.
Organizer of the invitational, head coach Brian Schaefer said it was an opportunity to play some of the best teams in the region and give the team a better shot at the NCAA tournament. There were four ranked teams in attendance, #12 UW-Whitewater, #18 Elmhurst College, #19 UW-La Crosse and #23 UW Oshkosh.
“That is what we were trying to get out of it, to play the better teams in our region,” Schaefer said. “We knew going in this year we were hitting all of the best teams in the region. Even if our conference record isn’t the greatest, we can say we beat the other teams in the other conferences.”
To conclude tournament play on Saturday, Oct. 1, UWO competed against Dominican University of Illinois.
The Titans took a quick 18-10 lead off of a five point run aided by kills from Samantha Jaeke, Shannon Herman and Tina Elstner. Back to back to back kills from Carly Lemke increased the Titans’ lead to 22-13. Two blocks from Elstner gave the Titans the first set, 25-17.
Dominican opened the second set with a 5-1 advantage. The Titans battled back to eventually tie the set at eleven a piece with a block from Jaeke. Their lead grew to 23-18 after a four-point run aided by a kill from Herman and block from Elstner. The set point went to the Titans after an error by the Stars.
The Titans maintained the lead the entire third set after the Stars captured the opening point. A seven-point run later in the set, aided by kills from Lemke and Elstner, secured the Titans’ lead at 22-12. A kill from Elstner gave Oshkosh the set and match at 25-27.
Team leaders include Elstner with 11 kills and seven blocks, Lexi Thiel with 30 assists, and Gardner with a match best 11 digs.
The Titans kicked off Saturday play against the St. Mary’s Belles of Indiana.
In the first set, the Titans took a quick 6-2 lead with kills from Jaeke, Lemke, Herman and an ace from Nerissa Vogt. The four-point lead lasted only so long, as the Belles went on a small run of their own to get the set back within one at 9-8.
St. Mary’s kept the game close at one point, trailing only 12-11 before Oshkosh steadily built a lead. The largest lead of the set occurred at 22-15. The set point came from a kill from Herman.
The Belles took an early lead 4-1 before the Titans responded to tie the game back up at four. The set was also tied at five, six and eight. Oshkosh took the lead 15-9 after a five point run with kills from Vogt and Jaeke. St. Mary’s rebounded with a four-point run of their own, including an ace to close the gap to 15-13.
At 17-16, the Titans looked to pull away from the Belles after taking advantage of a service error and an ace by Jaeke, but the next serve from Jaeke went long. This was the second time in the match where she served an ace followed by an error.
Jaeke said she knows how to cope with this issue and didn’t let it affect her overall play.
“When it comes to my serves, they are minor adjustments,” Jaeke said. “While I’m tossing the ball I know that if my elbow is down that’s why the ball goes out. It’s one of those mental things you just have to go back and remember.”
The Belles closed the gap yet again with a three-point run to trail 21-20. The two teams would exchange points until Oshkosh took advantage of a Belles service error with a hit off of the antennae to win the second set 25-22.
Set three started off where the last set ended as the two teams battled back and forth. The set was tied six times before the Titans went on to score the next ten of the last eleven points of the set.
The run was highlighted by a kill from Lemke, two aces from Laura Trochinski and a kill by Thiel was interrupted by only one point. A kill from Elstner put the set and match away 25-16.
Lemke said they know coming back to playing late at night and early the next morning requires more energy.
“In volleyball we play a lot of tournaments, unlike other sports, so we have to play late and get up early,” Lemke said. “If we play well we need to built on that energy for the next day. We also recoup and rehydrate to bring more energy. Every game is big for us and it’s all for that end goal. We need to bring energy no matter what time of day.”
Lemke recorded nine kills and a match best six blocks. Vogt and Jaeke contributed an additional 18 kills. Elstner led the team with nine digs. Jaeke also finished the match with five service aces.
Oshkosh capped off Friday night with a win over Alma College from Michigan in three straight sets, winning 25-14, 25-15 and 25-17.
The first set started with a three-point run from the Titans, assisted by kills from Jaeke and Elstner. The Scots would come within one point at 4-3, but that’s as close as they would get the rest of the match.
The Titans went on a four- point run with kills from Lemke and an ace by Jaeke to increase their lead 11-6. From there, the Titans slowly built up a nine-point lead before going on a five-point run to end the set.
The second set at 6-5 was the only lead Alma had during the entire match, but it was quickly squandered with three Scot errors.
Alma committed several errors in the entire second set as the Titans gained another lead off of a kill from freshman Herman and four more Scot errors. The set ended on a string of errors from Alma and another kill from Herman.
The Titans cruised through the the third set, jumping out to a quick 10-4 lead. Oshkosh held leads as large as ten points at 20-10 and 21-11. The final points of the match came from kills by Vogt.
In the first match of the tournament, the Titans squared up against Trinity University out of Texas.
In the first set, Trinity took a quick 7-2 lead off of a couple miscues from the Titans. After a timeout from UWO, the Titans closed the gap to 7-4 with kills from Jaeke and Lemke.
Directly after, the Tigers went on a run of their own, extending the lead to 11-4. However, kills from senior Brooke Brinkman and Jaeke kept the score within two at 14-16.
In response, Trinity went on a five-point run, unhindered by an Oshkosh timeout. The Titans fought back closing the gap to 19-23, but they wouldn’t score another point in the set. The set point was an untouched ace, splitting the Oshkosh defense.
The second set started with a small lead by the Titans off of service errors by the Tigers. Trinity quickly tied the set up three and four before going on a five-point run, giving them the lead 8-4. The Titans responded with a run of their own to close to the gap to a one point deficit at at 7-8 and 9-10.
The Titans would not get this close again as the Tigers led by as much as five points consistently throughout the rest of the set.
Down two sets with the match on the line, Trochinski noticed there was a dramatic shift in energy among the Titans.
“We started out very slow the first two games that we lost,” Trochinski said. “In comparison to Platteville, you could tell the crowd wasn’t into it as much as when we came back to win the third, fourth and fifth set. That helped us with our play. It was a snowball effect to help us win the match.”
The Titans scored the first points of the third set, but the Tigers didn’t back down. They tied the set at three and five. That’s when the Titans gained the lead aided by an ace and several kills from sophomore Renee Rush.
The Tigers fought back to tie the Titans late in the set at 17 and 18. However, they couldn’t manage to go on a substantial run as kills from Elstner, Vogt and Brinkman kept them at bay. Thiel’s ace put the game away as the Titans secured set three 25-20.
The Titans took the first point off of a kill from Elstner to begin the fourth set. From then on, the two teams battled back and forth, eight times the Tigers coming within one point of the Titans. The biggest lead the Titans had was 13-9.
Trinity kept battling, coming within one at 13-12 before being held at bay by two kills from Vogt. They tied the set later at 15 and 16 before taking their first lead of the set at 17-16. The Titans regained the lead off of a block from Brinkman and Elstner.
Late in the set the two teams were tied at 23 a piece. Rush put the Titans up with a kill. The next point was replayed after some debate whether the ball was hit out or not, but the Titans prevailed winning the fourth set 25-23.
The Tigers took the lead in the fourth set after four passes to get over the net from the Titans. With a kill from Jaeke, Oshkosh fought back to tie the set at four then went on an insurmountable five-point run in which Jaeke had two aces while Thiel and Vogt recorded a key block.
The Titans captured the fifth set 15-9 and won the match 3-2.
Brinkman said rather than dread five set matches and slough through, the team enjoys the five set competitions.
“After every game, whether we are down or up, we just come to the middle and talk about what we still need to work on to get through the five sets,” Brinkman said. “We play five sets so much, it’s fun for us. We like five set matches. It gives us more energy and experience.”
Elstner led the Titans with 13 kills. Teammates Brinkman and Jaeke pulled through with ten kills a piece. Vogt led the team with seven blocks, freshman Rachel Gardner had 11 digs, Thiel pitched in with 42 assists, and Jaeke and Trochinski both had two aces.
Both Jaeke and Thiel were named to the All-Tournament Team for their performances on the weekend.
Back on a multiple game winning streak, Jaeke said she feels it will greatly add to the team confidence.
“It will help our team confidence a lot,” Jaeke said. “When you win games you obviously feel good about yourself. Not only that, but what we’ve achieved when we’ve won games like our character, intensity, cheering, it has grown. By winning those matches it gives us a lot more confidence to do that exact same thing in a different, harder match and come out with a win.”
UWO looks to keep the streak alive as they travel to UW-La Crosse on Oct. 5.
