The UW Oshkosh women’s basketball team clinched its second straight regular season Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship over the UW-Eau Claire Blugolds 64-42 on Wednesday night.
The Titans’ (22-3, 11-3 WIAC) win over the Blugolds (8-17, 3-11 WIAC) wasn’t easy. UWO had to overcome a 31-29 deficit at the half, but cruised to a second half win behind a 19-point game from Kayce Vaile.
The win against the Blugolds was an example of the adversity that UWO had to overcome this season. The Titans saw the leading scorer from the past year’s team in Kennedy Osterman graduate, but they were also without the team’s third leading scorer for 2023-24 in Bridget Froehlke due to injury. UWO also swept UW-Whitewater for the first time since the 2020-21 season in games where it took overtime and double overtime for the Titans to beat the Warhawks. Those games are most notable due to the fact that the Titans finished in the standings two games above second place UW-Stout.
Vaile said she credits the team’s toughness on how they were able to repeat as conference champs.
“It really came down to who we are as a program at the core,” she said. “We are who we are because of the standard we set. We are able to come back and look at what we can learn from those challenges. Each tough game has taught us another lesson or area we can improve.”
In her fifth season, Vaile not only is the leading scorer of this team but in the Feb. 15 matchup against UW-La Crosse, Vaile reached the 1,000 point club.
Vaile said that although this year has been amazing, there are more goals to reach this season.
“Being able to come back and repeat what we did last year was everything we set our minds to,” she said. “ We have more goals that we want to accomplish but winning the regular season championship was one step in getting there.”
Despite it being her last season, Vaile said she is going into the postseason with no different mindset than any other year.
“There isn’t any more pressure than there has been in the past,” she said. “We need to be present and live in the moment because thinking it might end shouldn’t be on the mind.”
The Titans will head into the WIAC tournament on Thursday after receiving a first round bye. Last season, UWO fell in the WIAC tournament championship game to UW-Stout 77-65.
UWO’s Avery Poole said the team knows that they can’t let revenge get in their heads this tournament.
“People do not realize how hard it is to win the WIAC,” Poole said. “Any team can win on any given night and that is what makes our conference so fun yet challenging.”
The Titans will have home court advantage as the No. 1 seed for the tournament. They will open up their time in the WIAC tournament in the semifinal round Feb. 27 at the Kolf Sports Center. The Titans will face the lowest remaining seed out of the first round matchups between No. 5 UW-La Crosse and No. 4 UW-Stevens Point or No. 3 UW-Whitewater and No. 6 UW-River Falls.
UWO’s game on Thursday will tip off at 7 p.m. at Kolf Sports Center. You can check who Oshkosh’s opponent is at uwoshkoshtitans.com.
