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D3hoops.com Ranks Titans 12th In Final National Poll

D3hoops.com Ranks Titans 12th In Final National Poll

Following a remarkable run to the national quarterfinals, the UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team finished the 2021-22 season ranked 12th in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com.

UW-Oshkosh (22-7) went from unranked entering the Division III Championship to 12th in the final D3hoops.com poll of the season after knocking off three consecutive ranked opponents to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 1999.

The Titans, who received an at-large berth into the 64-team NCAA field after falling in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals, began their string of upsets with victories of 48-42 over 18th-ranked Wisconsin Lutheran College and 64-56 at fourth-ranked Simpson College (Iowa) to clinch the Indianola Regional title. UW-Oshkosh then defeated 10th-ranked Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio), 74-63, before suffering a 68-62 setback in the Division III quarterfinals at 12th-ranked and eventual national runner-up UW-Whitewater.

UW-Oshkosh was the lone unranked team in either the women's or men's 2022 Division III Championships to reach the fourth round of the tournament. The Titans' list of vanquished NCAA postseason foes all appeared in the final D3hoops.com poll of the season as Simpson College (26-2) was ranked 11th, Baldwin Wallace University (23-5) 14th and Wisconsin Lutheran College (23-2) 25th. UW-Oshkosh's victory at Simpson College ended the Storm's winning streaks of 23 this season and 21 in a row at home.

The Titans have now won at least one game in each of their last 14 trips to the Division III Championship. UW-Oshkosh, which has appeared in seven of the past eight NCAA postseasons under 10th-year head coach Brad Fischer, also advanced to the third round in 2017, 2019 and 2020, and to the second round in 2015 and 2016. The Titans, who won the 1996 national title and reached the championship game in 1995, also made Elite Eight appearances in 1994, 1998 and 1999.

UW-Oshkosh concluded the 2022 season as the national leader at 10.8 turnovers per game. The Titans also led Division III in turnovers per contest in both 2018 and 2020 since narrowly finishing second nationally in the statistic in 2017 and third in 2016. UW-Oshkosh also ranked 15th in the country this season with a .340 3-point percentage while pacing the WIAC in scoring defense (51.3), made 3-pointers (219) and 3-point percentage defense (.279). The Titans, whose 219 makes from beyond the 3-point arc were one shy of tying their own WIAC record, held opponents to 50 points or fewer on 14 occasions this season.

Senior guard Leah Porath was named a consensus All-American for the third straight year, receiving Third Team honors from D3hoops.com and Honorable Mention accolades from the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Porath, a finalist for the 2022 Jostens Trophy that recognizes the top Division III Player, was also named to D3hoops.com's All-Region 9 First Team and to the All-WIAC First Team.

Porath, a two-time WIAC Player of the Year, collected a program-record total of six All-America citations from the WBCA and D3hoops.com over the past three seasons. This season Porath, the fourth-leading scorer in school history with 1,405 career points, averaged 14.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game while shooting 45.8% from the field and a WIAC-best 42.1% from 3-point range.

Senior forward Nikki Arneson was voted to the D3hoops.com All-Region 9 Third Team and All-WIAC First Team after averaging 13.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per contest. Arneson, who this year became the program's 23rd player to reach 1,000 career points, shot 47.5% from the floor, a team-high 82.9% at the free throw line and 42.1% from beyond the 3-point arc while ranking third in the conference with 53 made 3-pointers. Arneson concluded her career ranked 18th on the school's scoring list with 1,082 points.

Senior forward Abby Kaiser was chosen to the All-WIAC Honorable Mention and WIAC All-Defensive teams. Senior guard Julia Silloway joined Kaiser on the five-member WIAC All-Defensive Team. Kaiser, who led the squad with 48 steals and 12 blocks, averaged 5.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game while shooting 48.5% from the floor. Silloway added 6.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and a team-leading 2.1 assists per contest.

UW-Oshkosh has won at least 20 games in each of Fischer's nine full seasons at the helm as the Titans were limited to 11 contests in 2021 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic that ended the program's 2020 NCAA postseason trip in the Sweet 16 and forced the cancelation of the 2021 national tournament. This season Fischer became the 11th WIAC women's coach to win 200 career games and enters the 2022-23 campaign with a 216-56 record. Fischer's 216 victories currently rank ninth in conference history while his .794 winning percentage is third-best among WIAC coaches with at least 160 wins.