Titans Notch Win Over Norse

Rachel Aasby had 11 kills and Shelby Coron matched her season high with 10 as the UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball team defeated Luther College (Iowa), 3-1, to begin the inaugural Marty Petersen Invitational on Friday (Oct. 11) in Kolf Sports Center.

UW-Oshkosh (15-6) downed Luther College (5-15) in set scores of 25-8, 20-25, 25-12, 25-19. The Titans, who have won each of their eight meetings with the Norse since 1995, improved to 6-0 at home this season.

Aasby, who led all players with 13.5 points, reached double figures in kills for the fourth time this year while hitting .350 and collecting a match-high three blocks.

Coron hit .421 on the way to finishing one kill shy of her career high of 11 established Sept. 28, 2017.

Eight different Titans contributed kills, including Kate Nottoli and Carissa Sundholm with nine apiece, Kendall Enyart with seven and Samantha Jaeke with five. Nottoli's kill total was a career high. Sundholm chipped in 12 digs.

UW-Oshkosh's Rachel Gardner had a match-best 21 digs, and Becky Brezen set a season high with 15 digs and matched her season best with four service aces for the Titans. Rebecca Doughty and Emma Kiekhofer both distributed 23 assists while splitting the team's setting duties.

The Titans concluded the first meeting between the team since 2014 with advantages of 55-33 in kills, .241 to .134 in hitting percentage, 65-43 in digs, 9-2 in service aces and 5-3 in blocks. UW-Oshkosh hit .333 in the first set before compiling a .462 hitting percentage in the third frame.

UW-Oshkosh never trailed in the opening set, building leads of 7-2, 11-3 and 23-7. Luther College pulled within 11-6, but the Titans closed out the set with 14 of the last 16 points, including three kills apiece by Jaeke and Nottoli. Nottoli later finished off the frame with her fourth kill.

Luther College took its first lead of the match at 4-3 in the second set and reclaimed a 9-8 advantage it would not relinquish for the remainder of the frame. UW-Oshkosh cut its deficit to one on several occasions, but the Norse created separation with three straight points for a 21-17 lead. The Norse reached set-point at 24-19 following a block by Brianna Highum before ending the frame two points later on a Paige Yontz kill.

The Norse then raced out to a 3-0 lead in the third set before a Coron kill knotted the score at 5. The Titans reclaimed the good after Enyart followed with a termination of her own for a 6-5 edge. UW-Oshkosh extended its advantage to 18-11 on a Norse attack error and capped the third frame with seven unanswered points as Aasby, Coron and Enyart had kills during the run.

Clinging to a 12-10 lead during a fourth set in which they did not trail, the Titans rattled off four consecutive points, including two on Coron kills and two more on blocks from Aasby and Enyart, for a 16-10 advantage. Coron's 10th and final kill of the match increased the UW-Oshkosh lead to 21-15, and the contest ended eight points later on a Norse attack error.

Yontz paced Luther College with 11 kills on 42 attempts.

Luther College also received a match-high 24 assists from Sam Sixta and a team-leading 11 digs from Greta Stauffacher.

UW-Oshkosh concludes the Marty Petersen Invitational against UW-Superior and Finlandia University (Mich.) on Saturday (Oct. 12).