The UW Oshkosh women’s volleyball continued their winning streak last week. Beating UW-Eau Claire and the University of Chicago (Illinois). The No. 6 nationally ranked Titans opened up the week at Sonnentag Events Center at Eau Claire and faced off against the No. 24 ranked Blugolds on Oct. 30. The Titans beat the Blugolds 3-2 with set scores of 25-15,21-25, 27-25, 23-25 and 15-11.
Riley Kindt and Sami Perlberg led the Titans in kills with 18 and 14 respectively. Izzy Coon and Kali Mau led in assists with 28 and 24 respectively.
The first set started with both teams tied at 5-5. For a couple points, both teams did not get a lead larger than one point until UWEC held an 11-10 lead the Titans went on a 6-0 run. Behind five combined kills from Kindt and Perlberg, the Titans took a 16-11 lead and used that gap to pull away for a 25-15 set one win.
Set two was a close battle the entire way. After UWEC started with a 3-1 lead, UWO came back and responded with a 4-2 run to take a 6-5 lead. That was the only time the Titans held the lead in this set and UWEC quickly reclaimed the lead and never relinquished it for the rest of the set. UWO never got closer than two points of the Blugold lead in the second set.
Set three was close due to both teams putting together big runs. With UWO up 5-4, the Blugolds went on a 6-1 and went to 10-6. The Titans responded immediately with a 6-0 run due to two kills from Joslyn Wolff amd wemt to 12-10. The Titans were able to build a 20-15 lead, however it was erased as the Blugolds were able to tie up the set at 24-24. UWO was able to get the last two points of the match due to kills from Kindt and Robyn Kirsch.
In the fourth set after a tightly contested battle, it looked like UWEC was going to pull away and win easily after building a 20-13 lead. However the Titans did not go away as UWO cut the lead down to 17-22, and went on a 6-0 run to take a 23-22 lead. UWEC was able to score the last three points, but it wasn’t without the Titans making them sweat.
In the final set of the night, it started out back and forth like the other four sets. However, down 5-6, the Titans went on a 4-0 run to claim a 9-6 lead. UWO did not relinquish the lead and went on to win the set and the match 3-2. The Titans second match of the week was on Nov. 2 when UWO traveled to Stevens Point to take on the 18th ranked University of Chicago Maroons. UWO swept the Maroons 3-0 with set scores of 25-23, 25-14, and 25-16. Perlberg led the Titans in the sweep with 16 kills, Mau and Coon led in assists with 21 and 18 respectively.
Set one was a close one, however in the set the Titans took the lead first and never relinquished the lead. UWO started the set with a 4-0 due to two kills from Kindt and Moe. The Titans were able to build that lead into an 11-6 lead, only for the Maroons to comeback and lower the lead down to 11-10. From there it was back and forth as the Maroons tied it a couple times but never took the lead as UWO won the set 25-23.
The second set started out as a battle until with an 11-9 lead, UWO went on a 6-0 run behind three kills from Lauren Grier to go up 17-9. From there the Titans were able to cruise to a 25-14 set two win. The Titans were able to use a 10-6 lead to start set three to carry them to the win. The Maroons were able to close the lead down to 13-10, but a 5-1 run from the Titans allowed UWO to pull away and win the set 25-16 and the match 3-0.
The Titans will return home on Nov. 8 to Kolf Sports Center as they will take on the UW-River Falls Falcons in the final game for the regular season at 7 p.m. If the Titans win, they will take home at least a share of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season title.
