After a great 2022 season, the UW Oshkosh volleyball team has gotten off to a quick 10-0 start and a third place ranking in the recent American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) coaches poll.
UWO kicked off their season Labor Day weekend in San Antonio, Texas, for the Trinity Classic. They beat the University of Texas at Dallas 3-0, Texas Lutheran University 3-1, Trinity University 3-0 and Birmingham Southern College 3-0.
The most impressive win for UWO in the Trinity Invitational was their last match. The Titans swept Trinity University, ranked No. 2 in the nation, 3-0 on their home court.
Not only was it Trinity’s first loss of the season, but prior to the match, Trinity was 47-1 in their previous 48 home games.
Trinity also hadn’t been swept on their home court since game two of the 2017 season.
UWO head volleyball coach Jon Ellmann said he is proud of the result, but realizes it is only the start of the season and the team needs to continue to focus.
“To finally hit the court and compete is exciting,” Ellmann said. “We couldn’t be happier about the result, but it was still just week one.”
UWO freshman Sami Perlberg opened up her career with 45 kills, six aces and 27 digs, earning her a spot on the All-Tournament Team. She was also named tournament MVP.
Perlberg said she gives credit to her teammates for helping her earn the MVP title.
“Being the tournament MVP is an honor and accomplishment that I definitely could not have done without my teammates,” Perlberg said.
After the Trinity Invitational, UWO had two more road matches midweek against St. Norbert College and Lakeland University. The Titans breezed through these matches behind Riley Kindt’s 25 combined kills along with Perlberg’s 17 combined kills.
Last weekend, the Titans opened up their home slate of the schedule as they hosted the Mary Peterson Invitational. The Titans played Carthage and Ohio Northern University on Sept. 8 and Millikin University and the Milwaukee School Of Engineering Sept. 9.
On Sept. 8, Carthage had an early lead in all three sets against Oshkosh, but the Titans were able to come back and win all three of them. In the second game Friday night vs ONU, UWO won 3-1. UWO claimed the first and fourth sets both at 25-16. ONU won set two and UWO came back from a 15-9 deficit to win set three (26-24)
Ellmann said that a communication error caused some players to be playing out of position in the third set.
“I didn’t communicate effectively enough late in the set to our side line, so we had a sub take place that was unintended, and the result was that we needed multiple players to play in different positions,” he said.
Even with the players playing out of position, Ellmann credited the set three comeback to the team’s “grit.”
“To pull out that comeback with our regular lineup would have been something special,” Ellmann said. “To do the way we did was nothing short of remarkable. I couldn’t be prouder of our team for getting it done when they needed to. Gritty.”
On Sept. 9, UWO cruised over MSOE in three sets, but then faced a little bit of a challenge against Millikin.
UWO won sets one, three and four 25-23, 25-16 and 25-22 en route to a 3-1 win. The Titans currently have a 10-0 record and a top-3 ranking will travel to UW-Whitewater for the UWW Invitational.
