The UW Oshkosh women’s volleyball team fought UW-Stevens Point in a WIAC conference match up, where the Titans came away with the 3-2 victory on Oct. 26.
The Titans beat UWSP with set scores of 25-16, 25-21, 27-25, 26-24 and 15-13. Sami Perlberg led the Titans in kills with a career high of 27. Kalli Mau led UWO in assists with 27.
The first set was a close battle between both teams. With the score being 10-9, the Titans went on a 5-point run to make the game 15-9. Both teams went back and forth until the Titans went on another run to make the score 23-14. UWO was able to close out the set win.
The next set started off close between both teams, but UWSP gained some momentum with the score being 8-12. Then, a spark came for the Titans as they went on a run of 9 points, making the score 17-12. UWSP tried to close the distance, but with kills from Lauren Grier and Perlberg, UWO took the second set.
The third set began with Stevens Point taking a commanding lead at 7-1, but the Titans battled back, starting with an ace from Izzy Coon. This left the Titans tied with Stevens Point 7-7. Both teams continued to trade blows with each other until UWSP was able to get the set three win.
Going into the fourth set, Oshkosh came out strong with Perlberg getting two kills, giving the Titans a lead of 12-9. The Titans went on another run, giving the Titans the lead of 22-17. The Pointers went on a run and put up six unanswered points to bring back life for the Pointers. Afterwards, both teams scored, bringing the score to 24-24, but the Pointers closed out the set getting two more points, which tied the match 2-2.
After going down two sets, Coach Jon Ellmann said that they needed to take a step back and refocus on what needed to be done.
“We looked too far ahead in the match and didn’t commit our energy and focus where it needed to be,” he said. The fifth and final set started off with the Titans struggling to find their ground with the Pointers taking a commanding lead of 10-2. Ellman said that after being down by 8 points, the team needed to refocus.
“We just talked about having a real opportunity to dial it in, let go of result and just play,” he said.
After that the Titans battled back, starting with a kill from Izzy Coon, and ending with an ace by Mau, making the set tied at 12-12. The game ended by a kill from Malia Winchel, giving the set to the Titans making them the victor.
Ellmann said that each win for this team is a sign that they are doing something right,
“Wins are simply road signs that tell us we are doing some good things,” Ellmann said. “Regardless of wins and losses, we are even more motivated to just keep making progress.”
The Titans traveled to Sonnentag Event Center to face off against UW-Eau Claire Oct. 30. Find the results at uwoshkoshtitans.com.
