The UW Oshkosh women’s volleyball team won its third straight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season title last Friday.
The No. 5-ranked Titans got the WIAC championship by beating the No. 3 UW-Eau Claire Blugolds 3-1 in the regular season finale at Kolf Sports Center. Going into the game, the Titans and Blugolds were tied atop the WIAC standings with both teams then holding a 6-0 record in conference play. So it was the regular season championship game for both UWO and UWEC. Friday’s win is the cap of a 26-3 regular season for the Titans.
With all the stakes that were on the line in the game against the Blugolds, UWO’s Izzy Coon said the team made sure not to let all of that affect them.
“We really focused on playing for each other and remembering our ‘why,’” Coon said. “We do our normal scouting on Eau Claire, but it wasn’t about who was on the other side of the net; it was about what we were going to do, our love for the sport and the family we built. That grounded us in that game and reminded us we are playing for something bigger.”
Samantha Perlberg led the team with 18 kills, 19 digs and two aces on the night. Coon and Jaclyn Dutkiewicz led in assists with 21 and 20, respectively. Lauren Grier and Grace Juergens had contributions in the kill department with 10 and 9, respectively. Callie Panasuk also contributed in digs with 15.
Set one was a preview of how the night was going to go for UWO, behind two kills from Perlberg and four Blugold attack errors. UWO jumped out to an 8-2 lead and was able to use the gap to cruise to a 25-12 set one win. The second set was close to start out, as after UWO responded to a Blugold 3-0 start to make it 4-4. It was back and forth for the next couple of scores as both teams kept trading punches. That was until, with the set tied at 13, behind two kills from Grier, UWO went on a 5-0 run to make it 18-13. The Titans used that gap to finish the set with a 25-18 set two win.
Eau Claire was able to keep the game alive with a 25-18 set three win. UWO made sure not to let UWEC send the game into set five as the Titans closed out the match and the WIAC championship with a 25-18 set four win.
Coon said she credited the coaches for getting the team back in the right state of mind between sets three and four.
“Riley Dahlquist looked at us and said, ‘What’s it going to take to win a conference championship,’” Coon said. “We wanted to play the whole game free, have fun, but this comment got us in the right headspace. The coaching staff also does a great job reminding us that even though it’s a big game, it’s still a normal volleyball game. Focusing on our side of the net was the biggest key.”
Going into this season, UWO lost six seniors after last season. But with what those players and the ones before last year’s class instilled into this team, head coach Jon Ellmann said he knows that anyone who has been a part of this team had an effect on this year’s team. But he also knows that this year’s team is taking credit for its own actions.
“One of the amazing things about legacy is that it leaves little ripples,” Ellmann said. “Anyone that has ever put on an Oshkosh volleyball jersey has in some way or another impacted our current team. With that said, this team takes credit and responsibility for its own actions. This team doesn’t see challenges as tests to pass or fail. We see them as opportunities for problem solving.”
After Friday’s win, Ellmann earned his 200th career win as the head coach of the UWO women’s volleyball team. While the number of wins doesn’t mean much to Ellmann, the benchmarks along the way do.
“If you coach long enough, you win matches, so the number 200 doesn’t mean all that much to me, but these benchmarks do create an opportunity to pause and reflect,” Ellmann said.
What Ellmann said he is grateful for is everything that was accomplished along the way, with the relationships and lessons that were taught. “What you hold on to are the relationships,” Ellmann said. “You hold on to the lessons that your fellow coaches and former players taught you. I am so unbelievably grateful for the opportunity to do this with so many amazing humans. Someone way smarter than me once said that if you want to be successful, surround yourself with great people. I feel like that’s what we’ve done here at UW Oshkosh.”
This season, UWO was able to win its third straight WIAC championship behind a run from Sept. 26 – Oct. 22, where in every game in that time frame, UWO not only went undefeated but won all 27 sets in all nine games played. Four of those wins in that nine-game stretch were against WIAC teams in UW-Stevens Point, UW-River Falls, UW-La Crosse and UW-Platteville. The game on Oct. 29 was also key in the Titans’ championship as UWO survived a five-set battle at UW-Whitewater. The win over the Warhawks for UWO clinched the Titans a first-round bye in the WIAC tournament.
Last season, UWO fell in the WIAC tournament championship game to UWW for the second straight year. But unlike 2023 where the Titans were swept 3-0, UWO held an 11-8 lead in set five but wasn’t able to score the final four points first before the Warhawks did. While that is a reminder to the team, they are focused on this year’s tournament just one day at a time.
“Last years’ experience fuels us, but we know we have to focus on what we can do now,” Coon said. “Every rep in practice this week is important, focusing on what we can control and sharpening the tools we already have. We will keep high energy and push each other with purpose. When we play for each other, that’s when we play best, no matter who is across the net.”
“We surely don’t want to live in the past, but we are aware of it, and it’s motivating,” Ellmann said. “We respect every team in our conference and whomever we play Thursday will get 100% of our attention and effort. Preparation will be no different than it has been all season. We have planned out our entire week, but all of our energy is focused on preparing for Thursday.”
UWO will open its time in the 2025 WIAC tournament in the semifinal round on Thursday, Nov. 13. The No. 1-seeded Titans will play No. 4-seeded UW-Whitewater as the Warhawks beat No. 5 seed UW-Stevens Point on Tuesday (Nov. 11). The game will take place at 7 p.m. at Kolf Sports Center. The game can be streamed on WIACNetwork.com or on 90.3 WRST-FM.
