On a night where the UW Oshkosh women’s volleyball team honored senior Amelia Hust’s father in his fight against cancer, the Titans added another win to their undefeated record.
The Titans (22-0, 4-0 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference), ranked No. 2 in this week’s American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, beat UW-Eau Claire (9-10, 1-3 WIAC) 3-1 with set scores of 25-18, 16-25, 25-15 and 25-17.
Sami Perlberg and Riley Kindt led the team in kills, with 12 and 11, respectively, while Kalli Mau and Izzy Coon led in assists at 19 and 17, respectively. The Titans totaled 94 digs on the night, with 25 coming from Abby Fregien.
The first set started out close until UWO went on a 6-1 run to take an early 10-5 lead. Perlberg and Kindt each recorded two kills to help break open the lead. After that, the Titans held onto their advantage and cruised to a 25-18 set win.
Set two started out 4-4, matching the first set, however it was the Blugolds that went on an ambush for the early lead. UWEC was able to build an 11-5 lead despite a big Oshkosh rally to shorten the deficit to 14-11. The Titans couldn’t complete the comeback as the Blugolds took set two 25-16.
The third set started out as a dogfight, each team responding for every point, leveling the score at 7-7. Oshkosh finally pulled away with a 7-1 run and sailed to a 25-15 set win.
It was all Oshkosh in the fourth set. The Titans went on a 10-1 run to turn a 5-5 tie into a 15-6 lead, thanks to two kills from Olivia Breunig and six attack errors from the Blugolds. Eau Claire was able to cut the lead down to 19-16 and didn’t get any closer as Breunig punctuated a 6-1 run with the match-winning kill.
The Titans will be on the road this weekend for the WashU Invitational in St. Louis, Missouri.. On Friday (Oct 13.), they will face Simpson College (Iowa) and No. 12 Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri) at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively. Then on Saturday, the Titans will face DePauw University (Ind.) and Illinois Wesleyan University with match times set for 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
