Volleyball Wins Eighth Straight Meeting With Pioneers

PLATTEVILLE, Wis.–Carissa Sundholm had a team-leading 12 kills and two service aces as the UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball team defeated UW-Platteville, 3-1, during a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matchup Wednesday (Sept. 21) In Williams Fieldhouse.

UW-Oshkosh (12-4, 1-1 WIAC) downed UW-Platteville (10-4, 0-2) in set scores of 25-18, 25-14, 22-25, 25-22 en route to picking up its eighth consecutive win in the series. The Titans, who have not lost to the Pioneers since Oct. 22, 2014, are receiving votes in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll.

Sundholm, who accounted for 15.5 points during the match, has now produced double-digit kills on 11 occasions this season.

Robyn Kirsch added 11 kills for UW-Oshkosh, which also received six kills on .357 hitting and three blocks from Riley Dahlquist, five terminations from Hannah Moe, and four kills apiece from Maddy Pearson and Riley Kindt.

Kalli Mau and Izzy Coon distributed 17 and 14 assists, respectively, while sharing setting duties for the Titans. Abby Fregien paced the UW-Oshkosh backrow defense with 24 digs while Amelia Hust chipped in 11 digs.

Fregien entered the night ranked second in the country in total digs. Kindt, who notched a solo block against the Pioneers, was second nationally in total blocks.

UW-Oshkosh owned advantages of 45-43 in kills and .150 to .076 in hitting percentage. UW-Platteville held edges of 10-5 in blocks and 7-4 in service aces. Both teams scooped up 68 digs.

The Titans went into Wednesday leading the division in both total digs and total blocks while ranking third in the country in total kills.

UW-Platteville's Emma Carlson led all players with 16 points and 14 kills. Bri Gartner had a match-best 29 digs for the Pioneers, who also received 26 assists from Abby Feldmann and three service aces from Kelsey Ewert.

UW-Oshkosh trailed for just one point on the way to securing lopsided victories during the first two sets in which UW-Platteville hit a combined -.026. The Titans bolted out to leads of 6-1 and 12-4 in the opening frame, maintaining a cushion the entire way.

UW-Oshkosh then overcame its lone deficit of the second set at 9-8 by tallying the next three points on a Pearson kill and a pair of UW-Platteville errors. The Titans closed out the second set with six straight points on kills from Moe and Dahlquist, two Sundholm service aces and a pair of Pioneers errors, including one on a double-block by Dahlquist and Moe.

After UW-Platteville overcame a 14-5 deficit to claim the third set, UW-Oshkosh answered with a comeback of its own during the fourth frame, finishing off the match with a 13-6 run. Trailing 22-21 in the fourth set, the Titans clinched the win with the last four points of the contest. The culminating run began with back-to-back kills by Kirsch and Olivia Breunig, and ended on consecutive UW-Platteville errors.

UW-Oshkosh, in the middle of a string of 11 consecutive matches away from home, heads to North Park University (Ill.) for a pair of contests Friday and Saturday (Sept. 23-24). The Titans play Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio) and University of Chicago (Ill.) on Friday.