Volleyball Opens Marty Petersen Invitational with Two Wins

OSHKOSH, Wis.- Sami Perlberg led the No. 8 nationally ranked UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball team to two wins on Friday night (Sept. 8) with 25 kills. Three more Titans registered double-digit kills.

Perlberg hit .434 over the wins over Carthage College (2-3) and Ohio Northern University (4-1), with 10 kills on 20 total attacks against the Firebirds and 15 kills on 33 total attacks against the Polar Bears. Robyn Kirsch hit 19 kills, Riley Kindt hit 16 and Riley Dahlquist hit 15. Izzy Coon and Kalli Mau registered 42 and 40 assists. The Titans recorded 15.0 blocks and hit .230, while holding their opponents to a kill percentage of .096.

The Titans (8-0) earned their fifth three-set win of the young season over Carthage, grounding the Firebirds in sets of 25-22, 25-21 and 25-14.

Three consecutive points gave Carthage the first sizeable lead of the match at 13-9 in the first set. Kirsch started a six-point run for UWO with a kill. After three Firebird errors, Kindt notched an ace and Dahlquist gave the Titans an 18-15 lead with a kill. Carthage tied the set back up at 18 after the run, but three points straight gave the Titans a big enough lead for the distance with neither squad stringing together more than two points.

UWO fell behind early in the second set, giving up three straight to the Firebirds, but came back swinging. The set got tied up at every point between seven and 15 and remained close until the Titans broke away with four-straight to make the score 23-19. The Firebirds scored two, however the set was ended by Perlberg with a kill.

The Firebirds took the first real lead again in the third set, but a kill from Kirsch, two from Kindt and an ace by Coon tied it up at 5-5. The Titans later extended their lead to six points by way of kills from three different Titans. Carthage narrowed the lead to 19-13 on kills by Ava Neushwander and Liv Carel, but the set and match was ended with five Titan kills. Two came from Kirsch and Perlberg and one came from Kindt.

In their second match of the night, the Titans handed Ohio Northern their first loss in four sets. UWO took the first (25-16), third (26-24) and fourth (25-16) sets and ONU took set two (25-23).

After falling behind early a couple times in the match against Carthage, UWO took it to the Polar Bears in set one for a 3-0 lead before they scored their first point. The Titans scored the first run of at least three in the middle of the set, taking a 16-8 lead on two Kirsch kills and a Coon ace. UWO reached a 10-point lead at 19-9 that forced an ONU timeout. The Polar Bears got the gap down to six points twice but couldn't string together more than two points at a time and the Titans took set one.

Both teams traded points for the first four serves of the second set and it remained close the whole set. The Polar Bears scored four points for a 23-21 lead they would keep, with Grace Conrad giving ONU the set with a kill.

UWO trailed by as much as six in the third set but forced an ONU timeout with three consecutive points to tie the set at 17. After the set was tied up at 18, 19, 20, 22, 23 and 24, the Titans pulled away to win 26-24, including a Dahlquist kill.

A five-point run gave UWO a 7-1 lead early in the third set. After the Polar Bears tied it up at 10, UWO went on a four-point run to retain their lead. Building a seven-point lead, Perlberg hit three kills in another four-point run, joined by Emmy Wizceb. Perlberg hit an attack error to make the score 22-16 but got the serve back for the Titans with a kill. Wizceb scored the 25th point with the final kill of the night.

The Titans will finish the Marty Petersen Invitational with matches against Millikin University (Ill.)(3-1) and Milwaukee School of Engineering (3-2) on Saturday (Sept. 8) at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.