Titans Season Ends in NCAA Second Round
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.- The fourth-seeded UW-Oshkosh Titans volleyball team fell to the first-seeded Calvin University (Mich.) Knights 3-0; 25-22, 25-15, 25-1 on Friday night in the second round of the NCAA Division III women's volleyball tournament.
They finished the season with a 31-6 record, their first 30-win season since the 2014 season, when they had a record of 31-8. They won the WIAC championship over UW-River Falls in five sets and advanced to the first round of the NCAA tournament, falling to Calvin in three sets.
Match Summary
The first set started with a Calvin point but stayed close until the Knights went on a 3-0 run to force an Oshkosh timeout after falling behind, 12-8. Oshkosh scored three points, but four more Knights points made them use another timeout to try to slow down Calvin's offense. The second timeout did the trick, because Oshkosh went on their own 6-2 run with Riley Dahlquist leading the way with two kills, shortening the difference to 17-18 and causing Calvin to take a timeout. After the Knights got to match point, Olivia Breunig recorded her third kill of the match, but Oshkosh's offense couldn't keep the rally going, losing the set on an attack error. The Titans ended the set with a .123 hitting percentage, three Titans with three kills, and two aces from Amelia Hust and Abby Fregien.
The Knights jumped out to a quick 4-0 run before the Titans brought the set back within one with a 3-0 run of their own. The teams would trade one- and two-point runs until a 3-0 run by Calvin to make the score 16-12 forced an Oshkosh timeout. Head coach Jon Ellmann would use the Titans' second timeout of the set quickly, after the Knights scored another two points to make the score 18-12. The Knights would go 7-3 the rest of the way, beating the Titans 25-15 in the set. Breunig had Oshkosh's sole kill in that run. The Titans hit .200 in the second set, with Riley Kindt and Joslyn Wolff leading the Titans with three kills each. Fregien added two aces and Brooke Porter recorded one of her own. Kalli Mau had four assists in the set.
The third set was more of the same with another early Calvin run, jumping up to a 3-0 lead before Oshkosh scored their first point. The Titans brought the set to within a point at 3-2, but Calvin went 7-3 until Oshkosh called a timeout. The timeout did little to slow down Calvin's offense, with two aces from Heidi Westra and a set error scoring them three more points before a service ace ended their run and Oshkosh called another timeout. A 4-0 Calvin run with three kills put the set and match out of reach for Oshkosh, ending with a score of 25-14. Kindt had four kills on the set, Wolff following her with three.
Titan Leaders
Kindt recorded 10 kills in the match on 22 attacks. Wolff was second with seven kills. Two Titans had six kills. Carissa Sundholm had two kills and seven digs with a solo block. Mau had a team-high 13 assists. Three Titans had eight digs.
Knight Leaders
Westra led the Knights with 15 kills on 33 attacks, also recorded three aces and five digs. Alyssa DeVries recorded 37 assists and 11 digs. Aubrey Wrubel and Maria Bos each had 17 digs, most on both teams. Two Knights had three aces.
Postgame Press Conference
Sundholm, Fregien and Ellmann sat down for the postgame press conference. "We are fortunate that we are a really young team", Ellmann answered when it was mentioned that most of the team is not graduating this school year, "to do what we did and this year and play as well as we did on big stages is just a testament to just character and trust".
The full postgame press conference can be found here.
Regional All-Tournament Team
Kindt of the UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball team was named to the Grand Rapids Regional All-Tournament Team on Saturday night.
Kindt played in both matches Oshkosh played in, the 3-2 win over Otterbein University (Ohio) on Thursday night, and the 0-3 loss to Calvin University (Mich.) on Friday night. She had a .167 attack percentage against Otterbein, recording 11 kills, with two assists, 6.0 total blocks (one solo), a dig and 14.5 points. Against Calvin, she led the Titans with 10 kills on a .318 attack percentage, also recording two digs, both a solo block and block assist for 11.5 points. She averaged 2.63 kills per set and 1.00 blocks per set over the regional.
She was also named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Region Eight honorable mention team, and the All-WIAC First Team this season. The WIAC award was the second season in a row that she was named to the All-WIAC First Team.
The full team can be found here.