Volleyball Wins Two on Saturday Including Upset of Trinity
SAN ANTONIO, Texas- The No. 15 UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball squad earned a win over Birmingham-Southern and upset No. 2 Trinity University (Texas) on Saturday (Sept. 2) in the two-day Trinity Invitational in San Antonio, Texas.
Sami Perlberg, who recorded 45 kills on 113 attacks, six aces and 27 digs, was named to the All-Tournament team and earned the Tournament MVP nod. She was joined on the All-Tournament team by Abby Fregien, who dug 66 attacks and recorded eight assists.
The Titans (4-0) swept both Birmingham-Southern (1-3) and Trinity (3-1).
Riley Dahlquist notched 19 kills over the two matches, followed by Sami Perlberg with 17. Assist leader Kalli Mau (39) also recorded 14 digs and three aces on the day while Abby Fregien dug 31 attacks.
UWO defeated BSC 25-10, 25-22 and 25-13, hitting .324 as a team with five team blocks and holding the Panthers to a .024 kill percentage, their lowest opponent kill percentage since a 3-0 win over Ripon College on Oct. 26, 2022.
Perlberg and Dahlquist each had eight kills in the neutral match against Birmingham-Southern with Dahlquist hitting .615, while adding five aces. Kalli Mau also tallied 19 assists.
UWO ran away with the first set, breaking a 4-4 tie with a 6-point run that included three Dahlquist aces. Another 4-point run extended the Titans' lead to nine. After trading points for three serves, they finished off the Panthers with an 8-2 spurt. A -.167 BSC kill percentage combined with a .467 kill percentage for UWO gave the Titans a quick 1-0 set lead.
The Titans fell behind during an 8-0 Panther run but runs of three and five point brought the set back to within two. Down 22-18, UWO came back with a vengeance to score seven straight and win the set. Riley Kindt blocked two attacks during the run and ended the match with one.
The third set saw UWO take an early 5-4 lead they would never lose on 4-point run with a kill and two aces from freshman breakout Sami Perlberg. The Panthers never scored more than twice in a row the rest of the way and UWO strung together two 4-point runs and a 7-point run to finish off their first opponent of the day.
In a clash of nationally ranked squads, the Titans, ranked No. 15, handed Trinity, ranked No. 2, their first loss of the season in a huge upset victory by scores of 26-24, 25-19 and 25-18.
TU had previously been 47-1 on their home court since losing to then-ranked No. 4 Colorado College on Oct. 20, 2018, and had not been swept at home since then-ranked No. 1 Calvin University (Mich.) beat them in three sets in their second match of the 2017 season.
UWO recorded a .191 kill percentage but held the dangerous Tigers to .107. Dahlquist and Kindt led the Titans will 11 and 10 kills. Mau recorded her second 20-plus assist match of the season and Fregien added 23 digs to her career total.
After trading points for quite a few serves, UWO broke a six-all tie to take the first 2-point lead. Trinity responded with four-straight points of their own and later extended their lead to four at 14-10. Dahlquist hit two consecutive aces, helping the Titans gain another 2-point lead, but a 6-point spurt by the Tigers put UWO on the ropes at 23-20. Kindt got the serve back with a huge kill and UWO scored three more times to get within striking distance of match point. A kill by TU tied it back up and both a kill by Joslyn Wolff and an ace by Amelia Hust won the first set for UWO in extra points.
The Titans fell behind early in the second set but rattled off five straight for a lead of their own. Two aces and two attack errors gave the Tigers another lead at 12-10 and the teams traded points for a while after until UWO strung together six for a late 19-15 lead of their own. Pulling back within a point was not enough momentum for TU because three kills and an ace brought the Titans within a set of the huge win.
Jumping out to an early lead, UWO was able to hold on for two Tiger points before rattling off four straight to get an early 7-2 lead. TU scored three to cut the lead to two, but after trading a few points, Olivia Breunig kicked off a 5-point UWO run that gave the Titans a comfortable 8-point favor. The Tigers scored nine more times including a 4-point spurt, but the gap was too large and a couple two-point possessions for the Titans ended the set and match at 25-19. The win was UWO's first ranked victory of the early season.
The Titans will make their home debut on Friday (Sept. 8) when they host Carthage College, Ohio Northern University, Millikin University (Ill.) and Milwaukee School of Engineering in the second annual Marty Peterson Invitational.