The UW Oshkosh Volleyball team traveled to UW-Platteville last Wednesday for their second clash against a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Conference Opponent in the 2024 season.
The Titans, who were ranked No. 2 in the nation at the time, fell to the Pioneers in an 3-0 upset with set scores of 25-14, 25-22 and 25-18. Sami Perlberg led the team with 14 kills in the loss while Kali Mau and Izzy Coon led the team in assists with 14 and 13, respectively.
In the first set of the match the Titans just could never really get going to match the energy with Platteville. Tied 3-3, the Pioneers went on a 4-0 run to go ahead 7-3. The Titans were able to get the Pioneer lead down to a two score gap at 6-8, but that was the closest that UWO was able to get in the set as UWP was able to blow the set wide open and won the first set 14-25.
Set two was the best shot that the Titans gave UWP of the night. Despite the Pioneers starting with a 3-0 lead, UWO was able to not let them pull away and in fact, the Titans was able to take the lead behind four kills from Perlberg. UWO jumped out to an 18-14 lead, but a 5-2 run by the Pioneers allowed UWP to trim the UWO lead down to 20-19. UWO did score two more points to make it a 22-19 lead, and looked like they were going to win the set until UWP went on a 6-point run, thanks to three Titan errors, to win the set at 24-22.
UWO started the third set with a 3-2 lead, but Platteville went on another 4-point run to get them the lead at 3-6. UWO was able to keep the Pioneers at a manageable distance, but was never able to reclaim the lead. The difference of the set came when the Pioneers held a 17-16 lead and were able to go on a 5-0 run after three Titan attack errors, extending the lead to 22-16. The Pioneer lead allowed UWP to close out the set and the 3-0 win over UWO.
Coach Jon Ellman thought that the difference in the game was that the team didn’t play as clean as Platteville.
“(UWP) outplayed us on Wednesday,” Ellman said. “It was what we did or didn’t do on our side of the net, we just never got going.”
Ellman also knows that despite the sting that the upset from last week will leave, it will motivate the team for the future.
“Our goal is to find value in each experience so that we can use them all as a catalyst for growth,” Ellman said. “This one left a little sting and surely an extra motivation to find solutions faster.”
The Titans, currently ranked No. 7 in the nation, returned home with the UWO Triangular on Tuesday, Oct 1, hoping to rebound against Edgewood College and Carthage College.
The Titans (14-4, 1-1 WIAC) lost their first match to Edgewood College (9-8, 2-0 NACC), 3-0 with set scores of 25-11, 25-19 and 25-22. Oshkosh put up 26 total kills and had 10 blocks. Edgewood had 35 kills and 15 blocks.
Olivia Breunig led the Titans with seven kills. Lauren Grier had six blocks, as well as five kills. Mau recorded 12 assists, leading the Titans, and Izzy Coon had 11 while Abby Fregien registered 19 digs.
The Titans fell behind 7-1 early in the first set and were never able to recover. They attempted a late push, scoring three straight points late, however the deficit was too large to overcome.
In the second set, UWO kept it close early, but Edgewood scored seven unanswered points to make the score 11-5. The Titans were unable to catch up and went down two sets to none at 19-25.
The Titans started off strong in the third set, opening with four points before the Eagles evened the score at 4-4. Two kills from Breunig helped the Titans regain a 11-10 lead, eventually extending that to 15-11. The Titans then lost that lead, as Edgewood scored five unanswered points, ending in a final set score of 25-22.
Oshkosh swept Carthage (9-5, 2-0 CCIW) by scores of 25-22, 25-22, and 25-11 in the Titans’ second match of the day. The Titans had 46 kills, as opposed to Carthage’s 30, and led on blocks, eight to three.
Perlberg led the Titans with 12 kills, with Robyn Kirsch recording nine and Riley Kindt recording eight . Grier recorded four of the Titans’ blocks, leading the team. Coon recorded 22 assists for the Titans, leading in that category and both Fregien (11) and Kirsch (10) reached double-digit digs.
After a kill from Kindt in the first set to put the Titans up 3-1, they never trailed, fended off a 4-0 Firebird run and won 25-22. Hannah Moe delivered the final kill of the set for the 25th point.
Similarly in set two, a kill from Kindt put the Titans up 5-4, and they once again retained the lead the rest of the way, extending the edge with three runs of at least three points. Moe had back-to-back kills for the 23rd and 24th points, and the Titans won the set 25-22.
In the final set, the Titans took an early 6-1 lead with kills from Breunig and Kindt and two points from the service line by Coon, never looking back. A 6-0 spurt with a kill by Kirsch, another from Grier and a Kindt ace put Oshkosh up 14-5. Moe repeated her feat from the first set, delivering the final kill of the match, as the Titans won the third set 25-11.
UWO will play its third WIAC opponent this weekend as the Titans will welcome the UW-Stout Blue Devils to Kolf Sports Center on Friday, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m.
