The UW Oshkosh volleyball team hosted the annual Marty Petersen Invitational at Kolf Sports Center over the weekend, improving to 9-0 on the year.
The No. 6 nationally ranked Titans beat No. 10 Washington University in St. Louis, No. 5 Emory University (Georgia) and No. 14 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (California) with scores of 3-1, respectively, and beat Marian University 3-0.
Going 4-0 in the Marty Petersen Invitational with the quality of opponents that the Titans faced is an opportunity that head coach Jon Ellmann said he is happy to have had.
“To play great teams and to do so at home is something that we surely don’t take for granted,” he said. “Our conference is always tough and playing solid teams before conference kicks off will help us prepare for the WIAC.”
Ellmann also said that the tournament helped show the team the areas that they need to improve on.
UWO began the invitational with a doubleheader on Friday against Washington University (Wash U) and Marian. In the game against Wash U, Sami Perlberg led UWO in scoring with 27 kills and three aces and Grace Jurgens wasn’t far behind with 18 respective kills. Izzy Coon, who took over the role of the main setter, led the team with 45 assists.
The first set was a preview of how the match was going to go. UWO was able to take a 9-7 lead early in the set behind six combined kills from Perlberg and Riley Borrowman. However, a 4-0 run by the Bears allowed Wash U to take an 11-9 lead. Despite a few rallies, UWO was never fully able to close the gap as the Bears took set one with a score of 25-20.
Set two started the same way as the first. Both teams were leveled for the first part of the set, but halfway through, UWO had an 11-9 lead. The Titans went on a 12-2 run to claim a 24-11 lead behind four kills from Perlberg and two aces from Malia Winchel. The big lead allowed UWO to cruise to a 25-13 set two win and even up the set score at one apiece.
Set three was back and forth, but the set and entire match flipped at the end of the third set. With Wash U holding a 24-22 lead, it looked like the Bears won the set after Lauren Grier was tagged with an attack error. But after close discussion by the referees, it was deemed that the ball deflected off a Bears player. Instead of Wash U going into set four with the lead, UWO had new life. Behind back-to-back aces and a kill from Perlberg, UWO went from being in danger to being in control with a 25-24 lead and Jurgens ended the rally with a kill to claim the third set.
The fourth set was also tightly contested, as neither team held a lead of more than three points. But at the end of the set, Wash U was able to claim a 24-23 lead. Like in the third set, UWO was in do-or-die mode with the points position they were in. The Titans went on a 3-0 run behind three kills from Perlberg to win the match.
Later that night, UWO returned to the court for game two against Marian. Despite a tough fight by the Sabres, the Titans swept Marian 3-0 with set wins of 25-19, 25-18 and 25-10. UWO came back on Saturday, opening the final half of the invitational with a game against Emory University, and the Titans beat the Eagles 3-1 with set scores of 25-17, 25-22, 17-25 and 25-18. Jurgens led the team with 18 kills and Coon led the team with 44 aces. The Titans were able to make it a game after falling down 3-0 to start set one by clawing back to take a 10-9 lead. After that, both teams were able to match each other’s punches until the Titans held a 19-17 lead. UWO was able to end the set on a 6-0 run behind four kills from Perlberg.
The second set was another tightly contested one. Neither team held a lead of more than three points in the set. Just like the first set, with both teams tied at 22, the Titans were able to go on a run to close it out. Behind a kill and an ace from Jurgens, the Titans took set two to gain a 2-0 set lead.
The Titans started set three with a 6-2 lead behind four Eagle attack errors. Unfortunately, UWO was not able to hold onto the lead as Emory came back to tie it at 12. After a couple of strikes by both teams to tie it at 14, Emory was able to go on a 4-0 run due to three Titan errors to claim an 18-14 lead. That was all Emory needed to take set three.
The fourth set started out with the Titans jumping out to a 3-0 lead behind two kills from Perlberg. Emory was able to respond and cut UWO’s lead to one. However, with the Titans holding a 5-4 lead, UWO went on a 7-0 run to claim a 12-4 lead. From there, UWO was able to use the gap for the rest of the set. Emory did make it interesting at the end, cutting the lead down to 22-18, but the Titans were able to close it out like they did all game with the final punches on the way to a 25-18 set win and a 3-1 match win.
The fourth and final game of the invitational came against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. In the rematch of the 2023 Elite Eight matchup where the Athenas swept the Titans, UWO got its redemption in the rematch on Saturday night with a 3-1 win. Just like the game against Emory, Jurgens led the team with 24 kills on the night. Coon led with 37 assists on the night.
The Titans took a tightly contested set one 26-24. Neither team took a lead higher than three points in the set, but at the end, UWO was able to close it out with a kill from Perlberg to win the set. Set two was another close one, where the Athenas jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the set. They never relinquished the lead until the end, where UWO was able to cut the lead down to one multiple times in the set, but could never overcome the big deficit. Despite nearly blowing a 24-18 lead, CMS won set two 25-22.
Set three was identical to set one, as neither team held a lead larger than two while going back and forth. However, with Claremont holding a 23-22 lead, UWO went on a 3-0 run to win the set behind two Athena attack errors. Set four began very rocky for the Titans as CMS jumped out to a 7-0 lead. As it was looking like Claremont was going to cruise to a set four win, once again UWO did not unravel as the Titans responded with a 10-3 run to claim the lead at 10-9. From there, with the set having new life, both teams went back and forth to the end. With the teams even at 21, UWO ended the game and the match on a 4-2 run behind three kills from Jurgens to win the set at 25-23.
UWO is now sitting at 9-0 to start the year, and a big part of that is the production that the team has gotten out of Jurgens. The transfer from the University of New Haven (Connecticut) not only played a big role in the invitational with her team leading 66 points in the four games, but she has made an impact throughout the first part of the season.
“We recruited (Jurgens) when she was coming out of high school, so to have her come back to Oshkosh later in her career has been an absolute treat,” Ellmann said. “She has fit right in and has already found very authentic ways to help lead our team.”
UWO will return to Kolf Sports Center this weekend for the UW-Oshkosh Invitational. It will be another tough weekend for the Titans as they welcome No. 5 University of La Verne (California), No. 8 Hope College (Michigan) and (RV) University of Chicago (Illinois). The match against La Verne will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12. Then on Sept. 13, the matches against Hope and Chicago will begin at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. respectively.
