The UW Oshkosh women’s volleyball team added to their 3-1 start to the 2024 campaign as they swept St. Norbert College and Lakeland University 3-0 in the UW-Stevens Point WIAC/Midwest Conference Quadrangular Wednesday night.
The Titans, ranked No. 8 in the nation by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, opened up their doubleheader against St. Norbert and UWO swept the Green Knights 25-14, 25-20 and 25-13 in straight sets.
Hannah Moe led the Titans with nine kills and a .471 kill percentage on 17 attempts. Riley Kindt wasn’t far behind as she put up eight kills. Kali Mau and Izzy Coon led the team in assists with Mau recording 19 and Coon recording 18 respectively.
In the match against St. Norbert, set one was close as the Titans held onto only a 10-8 lead until the UWO broke it open with a 4-0 run behind two kills from the 2023 All-WIAC first teamer Sami Perlberg. After that UWO was able to cruise to the set one victory. Set two was the closest set in the match. The Green Knights jumped out to a 4-1 lead but UWO was able to tie it on a 4-1 run thanks to two kills from Olivia Bruneig. It was back and forth the rest of the set until UWO was able to close it out with a 3-0 run up 22-20 to win 25-20. Set three was similar to set one, close early but the Titans were able to break it open as UWO cruised to a 25-13 set three win to sweep the Green Knights.
In game two of the doubleheader, the Titans swept Lakeland University with set scores of 25-17, 25-12, and 25-15.
Robyn Kirsch led the way with 14 kills in the win for the Titans, while Coon and Mau once again led the team in assists recording 14 and 13 respectively.
Set one was not as close as the scoreboard reflected. With UWO up 9-5, the Titans scored 7 unanswered points to go up 17-9 behind two kills from Olivia Bruenig and kills from Kirsch, Kindt and Lauren Grier respectively. The Muskies did rally to make it 24-17 but the Titan lead was insurmountable as the Titans closed out set one with a kill from Perlberg.
Set two started similarly to set one, it was close at the start, but the Titans built their lead to a couple points at 11-7. UWO blew it wide open with a 6-0 run to go up 17-7, only this time Lakeland wasn’t able to even go on a run to make it somewhat interesting as UWO closed the set out 25-12.
The Muskies kept it close for a little bit in the third set as Lakeland jumped out to a 10-6 lead to start the set. Shortly after, the Titans were able to get the game leveled at 12-12 thanks to three service aces with Grier recording two and Malia Winchel recording one. UWO was then able to jump out to a 20-14 lead behind two more aces recorded by Kirsch. The Muskies recorded one more kill to make it 20-15 but the Titans went on a 5-0 run to close out the match thanks to three kills in the run from Grier.
The Titans will return home this weekend for the annual UW-Oshkosh Marty Peterson Invitational Sept. 6-7. The Titans will host their first matchup on Friday, Sept. 6, against Whitworth University (Washington) at 7 p.m. Then on Saturday, Sept. 7, the Titans will play two matches again. Game one will be at 11 a.m. against North Central College (Illinois) and game two will be at 3 p.m. against Aurora University (Illinois). All games over the weekend will take place at Kolf Sports Center.
