The UW Oshkosh volleyball team fell to Johns Hopkins University (Maryland) in five sets Wednesday in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament at the Cregger Center in Salem, Virginia.
The Titans exited the tournament in the same spot they did last season after dropping the first, third and fifth sets to the Blue Jays 25-21, 25-21 and 15-11, respectively. UWO was able to force a fifth set after winning sets two and four 25-23 and 25-19.
This was the fifth 5-set battle for Oshkosh, with two of them coming from the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship, where Oshkosh fended off UW-Platteville 20-18 before being defeated by UW-Whitewater 15-12. UWW advanced to the National Semifinals by upsetting No. 3 seeded Emory (Georgia) with a straight-set victory.
For the third game this season, sophomore Sami Perlberg surpassed 20 kills, coming in at a game-high 23. Johns Hopkins’ Jilienne Widener led the Blue Jays with 20.
In the approximate two-and-a-half-hour clash, there were 46 tie scores during this match, with 18 coming during set two and 13 following in set three.
Malia Winchel served first in the opening set; however, the ball went out of bounds, and the Blue Jays took the set. Perlberg recorded her first kill of the day in the following rally, and Riley Kindt tied the set at 2-2 with a kill of her own to kick off an 8-1 run. The Titans led 9-3 before Johns Hopkins tallied four points to bring the score within two points. The Blue Jays then tied the set at 10-10 and 11-11, taking the edge on the following rally and owning a 5-point lead before kills by Kindt and Olivia Breunig, and a Perlberg ace brought Oshkosh within a pair of points at 19-17 late in the set. The Blue Jays outscored UWO 6-4 for the remainder of the set and claimed the set lead at 1-0 with a score of 25-21.
Perlberg’s fifth kill of the afternoon opened up the second set before the Blue Jays responded. The two teams traded kills early in the set, but Oshkosh clung to a 5-4 lead. After a series of kills and side outs, Joslyn Wolff got back-to-back kills of her own and forced Johns Hopkins to take a timeout, followed by the set-winning attack error by the Blue Jays.
In the third set, Johns Hopkins kept the score close, breaking a 20-20 score and outscoring the Titans 5-1 in the final six serves to take set three 25-21.
The two teams traded small leads early in set four, and UWO broke away for the first sizable lead with a 3-point edge at 10-7. The Blue Jays tied the set at 10-10, 11-11, 16-16, and 18-18; however, the Titans were able to retain the lead. Kindt hit a kill to make the score 23-19, and Kindt and Perlberg combined for a block for set point. Perlberg then recorded a kill for the 25th point, re-tying the match at two sets apiece and forcing the ultimate deciding fifth set.
Perlberg once again opened up the fifth set with a kill, before Kindt recorded two additional kills to give UWO an early 3-1 lead. But, the Blue Jays started to rally en route to a 5-5 tie. JHU continued this rally to the eighth point bench swap. Oshkosh fought back to being down a point, and the Blue Jays strung together two 2-point streaks to hold the Titans at arm’s reach. JHU went on to win the final set 15-11 after Kindt broke up match point with a kill, before ultimately falling to a serving error.
In its fourth NCAA championship appearance since winning the title in 2019 (third consecutive appearance), Johns Hopkins will advance to the semifinals for the first time. In both 2022 and 2023, Hopkins fell in grueling five-set matches during the quarterfinal round.
UWO, the No. 7 seed in the Elite Eight ends the season with a 29-6 record and as regular season WIAC champs with a 6-1 conference record. Graduating seniors Robyn Kirsch, Kalli Mau, Kindt, Breunig, Abby Fregien, and Wolff will be leaving holes in the roster’s experienced squad as they look forward to next season, searching for another trip to the national tournament.
