Titans Advance to Second Round with Win
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.- The No. 4 seeded UW-Oshkosh volleyball team defeated the No. 5 seeded Otterbein Cardinals (Ohio) in five sets to advance to the second round of the 2022 NCAA Division III volleyball tournament.
Titan Leaders
Joslyn Wolff led the Titans with 18 kills and a .260 kill percentage, adding four block assists. Kalli Mau was the Titans' assist leader with 29. Abby Fregien had a team-high 45 digs, outpacing the next Titan by 29.
Cardinal Leaders
Amber Greely was the Cardinals' leading attacker with 14 kills. Carlie Craycraft led all setters with 50 assists. Amanda Troyer led the Cardinals with 36 digs.
Set Summary
The Titans and Cardinals traded points the first six serves of the match to make the score 3-3. Otterbein then took their first lead of more than one point, but it didn't last, with Oshkosh scoring four straight points of their own to take a 9-7 lead. The Titans would retain the lead and build up to a four point lead when Otterbein called a timeout. Oshkosh never lost the lead after the timeout, winning the set 25-20. Three Titans had three kills, and Olivia Breunig led with four. Abby Fregien had three digs in the set.
Oshkosh took an early lead in the second set that they kept until the Cardinals tied the set at six. After Oshkosh called a timeout, they scored seven points straight to retake the lead. Joslyn Wolff recorded four kills in the run. Otterbein called a timeout after the Titans scored five of eight points to make the score 18-12. The Titans would score the last four points of the set, winning 25-17. Wolff had two kills in the run. She racked up seven kills in the set, and Fregien added another 10 digs, both leading the Titans.
Besides a short one point lead, Oshkosh trailed through a timeout they called at 8-10. The Titans didn't score more than one point in a row through another Oshkosh timeout. After the second timeout, the Titans fought back to tie the set at 18 and trying again at 19. Otterbein pulled away, scoring four straight points. Oshkosh didn't give up, pulling back within two and forcing an Otterbein timeout at 22-24. Coming out of the timeout, the Titans scored a point, but a Cardinal kill ended the set 23-25. Kindt and Sundholm each had four kills on the set. Fregien led the Titans with eight kills.
Amelia Hust started the fourth set with an ace, but Oshkosh fell behind quickly, calling a timeout at 1-5. Hannah Moe came out of the set swinging, racking up two kills in the first two serves. The Titans kept up the run, scoring two more times before an attack error ended the run at 5-5. Oshkosh kept the set within three points, tying the set at nine, 10, 11 and 12 with another tie at 16-16 they would break to force an Otterbein timeout at 17-16. The fourth set would tie five more times until the Titans went up 23-22 on an attack error which forced Otterbein's final timeout of the set. Oshkosh kept going up by a point, but the Cardinals wouldn't let them score a second, tying consistently until they took a 26-25 lead. They won the fourth set 27-25.
The fifth set stayed within two until a 3-0 by the Titans forced an Otterbein timeout at 9-5. The Titans had a balanced attack through the timeout, with no player owning more than three kills. The lead increased to six, forcing Otterbein to quickly take their second timeout at 12-6. The Cardinals went on a 3-1 run, with Oshkosh calling their first timeout since the beginning of the fourth set. The timeout didn't slow Otterbein down, scoring two more points and draining Oshkosh of their last timeout.
Postgame Press Conference
Coach Ellmann when asked how regular season competition against WIAC opponents, known nationwide as a strong conference, prepared them for the NCAA tournament, he said they are blessed to play in the conference and it battle tests them every night to prepare them for postseason play. He went on commend his players on their commitment to preparing for every match and individual set, then evolve their game from what they learned.
The full press conference can be found here.
Looking at the Second Round
Oshkosh will face the winner of the No. 1 Calvin University (Mich.) - No. 8 Aurora University (Ill.) match that follows the Oshkosh-Otterbein match on Friday at 7 p.m. CST.
Calvin entered the NCAA tournament with a 25-3 record, winning the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association conference tournament final 3-0 over Albion College (Mich.). The Knights are led by Heidi Westra with 392 kills, Aubrey Wrubel, who leads the conference with 475 digs and Alyssa DeVries who is ranked third in the conference with 1,033 assists and first with 11.11 assists per set.
Aurora entered the NCAA tournament with a 22-9 record, winning the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tournament over St. Norbert College (Wis.), 3-0. The Spartans are led by conference-leading Sydnei Avery (401 kills) and Kaitlyn Beebe (1,019 assists). Samantha Juarez leads Aurora with 456 digs.
The tournament bracket can be found here.