The UW Oshkosh women’s volleyball team clinched its second straight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship Friday night at the Kolf Sports Center after the No. 5 nationally ranked Titans beat UW-River Falls 3-0.
UWO beat the Falcons with set scores of 25-16, 25-14 and 25-23. Sami Perlberg and Riley Kindt led the Titans in the victory, recording 11 kills each. Izzy Coon led the team with 16 assists and Abby Fregien had 16 digs.
The first set started as a close battle with both teams starting the match tied at 9-9. The Titans broke it open with a 5-0 run while leading 12-11 thanks to five Falcon errors to go up 17-11. The Titans used the lead to propel themselves to a set one win.
The second set of the match was a blowout, as UWO jumped out to an 8-1 lead behind two kills from Perlberg and two service aces from Fregien. The Titans were able to get a lead as large as 10 points in the set and the lead was never smaller than seven points as UWO easily won the second set of the match.
The third set was the closest one of the match. UWRF jumped out to a 10-6 lead to start the set, but UWO was able to come back and take the lead at 17-16 thanks to two 4-0 runs from the Titans. After, it was a back-and-forth battle and the Falcons were able to reclaim the lead at 21-20. That was the last time the Falcons would hold the lead as the Titans finished the match on a 5-2 run to win the match behind kills from Perlberg and Lauren Grier. The Titans scored the final point off of an attack error from Falcon outside hitter Grace Mcdole to win the set, match and the WIAC title.
The Titans finished ahead of both UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point by one game in the final WIAC standings. In their match against UWW Sep. 18, the Titans had to come back from a 2-1 deficit to knock off the Warhawks in five sets. Then UWO traveled to Stevens Point on Oct. 26 and the Titans had to come back from a 10-2 deficit in the fifth set. Those two matches are important to note because UWO also had to respond from back-to-back losses where they were swept by UW-Platteville on Sept. 25 and Edgewood College on Oct. 2. Since those two matches, the Titans ripped off 12 wins in a row to end the regular season with a 24-4 record.
Head coach Jon Ellmann said that he knew that team would be tested this season and was proud of the response.
“We are extremely proud of the regular season accomplishment,” he said. “We’ve been tested in a multitude of ways this year. We knew that would be the case, and we’ve learned a multitude of lessons on who we need to be and how we need to play.”
The team returned most of its players from last year, including fifth-year seniors Kindt and Kalli Mau. The Titans were able to defend their title from a year ago due to the contributions they got from the young players, especially from sophomores Malia Winchel and Grier, who weren’t an active part of last year’s team.
“It’s great to see younger players on the roster step up consistently and in big moments,” Ellman said. “They, and all of our younger players, really bring great positional depth, talent and fun to this roster.”
Perlberg replicated her 2023 season, where she led the team in scoring, by leading the team again in scoring this season with 355.5 total points.
The Titans head into the WIAC tournament with the No. 1 overall seed. Ellman said that he knows that even though home court will be an advantage, the Titans have to be ready for a tough fight from whoever they face in the WIAC tournament.
“The conference is tougher this year than last from top to bottom,” Ellman said. “With that said, we are surely not deficient in the motivation department.”
UWO hopes to avenge their loss in the conference tournament championship game to UW-Whitewater last season.
The Titans’ first game in the WIAC tournament will be Nov. 14. UWO will face off against either the No. 5 seeded UW-Eau Claire Blugolds or No. 4 seeded UW-Platteville Pioneers at the Kolf Sports Center and at 7 p.m.
