Titans sweep Knights in NCAA quarterfinal; will face Trinity Tigers in semifinal round

UW-Oshkosh competes with Calvin University in the NCAA Division III Championship Quarterfinals. Photo by Kodiak Creative.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.- Back in the NCAA Division III Championship quarterfinal for the third time in the last three years, UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball defeated Calvin University (Mich.) in set scores of 25-13, 26-24, 25-21 to advance to the national semifinal round for the fifth time in program history and the first time since 2009.

The Titans and Knights, entering the match with a 4-4 all-time record against each other, last faced off in the second round of the 2022 NCAA Championship. Calvin won the match, 3-0, on its home court.

UW-Oshkosh (32-3), ranked third in the nation in the American Volleyball Coaches Association's final regular season poll and seeded second in the championship, made four previous appearances in the semifinal round: 1991, 1994, 1996, and 2009. The Titans picked up their only Final Four win in 1994 before finishing as the national runner-up.

Oshkosh hit .297 with 49 kills on 111 total attacks, registering 11 errors, while holding Calvin (28-4) to .158 with 33 kills and 17 errors on 101 total attacks. The Titans hit .400 in the first set, recording 13 kills on 25 attacks with three errors, while holding the Knights to .000.

The Titans also held advantages in assists (45-31), service aces (7-3) and digs (44-43) while Calvin paced the match with 10 team blocks to Oshkosh's eight.

Strong performance

Oshkosh dominated the first set, jumping out to an 8-5 lead with a pair of two-point runs before Riley Borrowman (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) started a 5-1 run with a solo block. Samantha Perlberg (Chippewa Falls/Chippewa Falls) hit three kills during the run while the fifth point was scored on a Knight service error. Calvin scored three consecutive points to decrease the deficit to 14-11, however, following a Knights block, the Titans rattled off nine points in a row to win the set. Before Grace Juergens (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Community) and Borrowman closed out the set with a combined block, they recorded another early in the run, Perlberg recorded two kills, Juergens notched one of her own, and Izzy Coon (Fond du Lac/St. Mary's Springs Academy) scored from the service line.

The Knights started the second set, 2-0, before Oshkosh went on a 7-1 run to create a 7-3 edge. Perlberg started the spurt with a kill and picked up two more while Lauren Grier (Fond du Lac/Fond du Lac) and Maren Motz (Hartland/Arrowhead Union) registered a combined block, and Borrowman and Jaclyn Dutkiewicz (Franklin/Franklin) both had a service ace. Oshkosh led by as much as 10-5 before Calvin tallied a 7-1 run of its own to flip the lead, 12-11. The Titans tied the score twice leading up to a three-point run to reclaim the lead that they wouldn't let up until the Knights broke a 23-23 tie with a kill. Juergens and Perlberg led Oshkosh to a 26-24 set two win with back-to-back-to-back kills.

After Perlberg recorded the first point of the third set with her 16th kill, Calvin scored three consecutive points and extended their edge to 11-5 with additional runs of three, three, and two points. Holding the Knights to three pairs of two points, Oshkosh recorded three runs of at least three points on its way to taking the lead at 21-19. In that final run leading up to the lead change, Borrowman hit two kills, Perlberg recorded yet another, and Motz and Borrowman blocked a shot. The Knights scored just two more times in the set while the Titans earned their four points on a Motz kill, a Juergens ace, and two Perlberg kills.

Perlberg recorded a match-high 23 kills and hit .463. She also had four digs, one assist, and one block on her way to 23.5 points. Lauren Grier (Fond du Lac/Fond du Lac) quietly gathered an 11-kill contest with a .625 hitting percentage and a block.

Along with her two service aces, Coon led the match with 21 assists, followed by 15 from Dutkiewicz.

Juergens paced the Titans with 11 digs while adding seven kills and three blocks.

In a well-rounded performance, Borrowman had three kills, two service aces, seven blocks (one solo), and three digs.

Next match

The Titans will play Trinity University (Texas) (26-5) in the national semifinal round on Thursday (Dec. 4) at 5 p.m. The match will be broadcast on ESPN+, which requires a paid subscription.

The Tigers, ranked 11th by the AVCA and seeded sixth in the championship, advanced to the semifinal round for the fifth time in program history and the first time since 2022 with a 3-2 victory over Colby College (Maine) in Wednesday's first match. Trinity holds a 4-7 record against Oshkosh since 1985 while the Titans are 3-2 in the last five matchups and won the most recent meeting, 3-0, in San Antonio, Texas early in the 2023 season.

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