The No. 1 seeded UW Oshkosh women’s volleyball team swept No. 5 seed UW-Eau Claire in the semifinal round of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Nov. 9 at the Kolf Sports Center.
UW Oshkosh swept the Blugolds with set scores of 25-15, 21-25, and 20-25. The Titans beat the Blugolds 3-1 in their regular season match in Oshkosh on Oct. 11.
UW Oshkosh advanced to the WIAC final for the first time since 2009 with the win. The team defeated Eau Claire in five sets that season for its fourth WIAC Tournament title.
Riley Kindt led the Titans in kills with nine on 26 attacks for a .214 kill percentage. Kalli Mau and Izzy Coon led the Titans in assists with 20 and 12, respectively. Abby Fregien was the team leader in digs, with 22.
UWO hit .222 with 41 kills against UW-Eau Claire’s .075 with 36.
In the first set, the Titans showed a lot of grit. UW-Eau Claire dominated in the early part of the set, building up an 8-3 lead. From there on, Oshkosh limited the damage and went on a 6-1 run to tie it at 9-9 and then eventually was able to take its first lead of the night at 13-12. After Oshkosh took the lead, it ran away with a dominating win.
Set two was all about runs. After a few rounds of back-and-forth scoring, Oshkosh turned a 7-6 lead into an 11-6 lead thanks to three kills from Robyn Kirsch. Despite two big rallies from the Blugolds, the Titans used the large lead to their advantage as they never relinquished on the way to the set two win.
Set three was nearly the same as set two for Oshkosh, jumping out to an early 8-2 lead. However, similar to set two, the Blugolds refused to let the Titans run away with it. Eau Claire was able to decrease the deficit to 10-8 and from there it became an affair of trading points. Despite all the answers from Eau Claire, the Titans never lost the lead on their way to the match win.
The Titans now set their sights to UW-Whitewater as they will face off against No. 2 seed Warhawks in the WIAC Tournament title match at the Kolf Sports Center. UWO swept the Warhawks in their regular season match on the road on Sept. 20.
