Over the weekend, the UW Oshkosh women’s Volleyball team traveled to UW-River Falls for a quadrangular hosted by the Falcons that showcased two Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference teams, as well as Macalester College (Minnesota) and the College of Saint Benedict (Minnesota).
The first match of the weekend took place Friday night, when the Titans clipped the Falcons 3-0, winning the first two sets 25-16 and 25-17, respectively. The third set was the only struggle, with the Titans holding off a late 6-1 Falcon run that brought it within one, but it was Grace Juergens who closed it out on Friday night. Head Coach Jon Ellmann said he had a lot of praise for Juergens.
“She’s been a phenomenal leader,” he said. “She’s been really authentic, and she’s fit right in, with like a high level of emotional intelligence and vulnerability from the get-go.”
Really, it was her night with a 12-kill performance to lead Oshkosh to its third conference win, getting it done on the road.
Saturday went as expected for the Titans, taking care of a 3-13 Macalester team with a swift sweep, with the closest set being 25-19. Freshman Claire McEniry led the Titans in kills with nine kills on 19 swings, also compiling six errors in the process. These errors were something of note for Ellmann.
“We’ve (also) committed a couple more errors, and so we want to clean up some of those statistical categories,” Ellmann said. “It’s about being cleaner but also being cleaner at the net with our block.”
The Titans put up 13 blocks compared to the Scots’ six and hit .204 in the match, cleaning up most mistakes and waltzing to victory.
Later on in the day, UWO took on the Bennies of Saint Benedict, who gave a fierce challenge, losing two sets by two, but still falling victim to the Oshkosh broom. The Titans won the second set 25-23 and were down one at set point 25-26, but rattled off three straight points, thanks to two big errors by the Bennies. Samantha Perlberg dominated the match, hitting .333 on 33 swings and accumulating 15 kills with only four errors.
The Titans host the Carroll Pioneers for a bittersweet senior night, celebrating the six seniors on the team.
That game will take place this Wednesday, Oct. 8th, at Kolf Sports Center, with first serve at 7 p.m.
