STEVENS POINT, Wis.- The UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball team defeated Wheaton College (Ill.), 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-23) at the UW-Stevens Point Papa Johns Invite on Friday night (Oct. 11).
 
The Titans (18-4, 2-1 WIAC), who extended their current winning streak to five matches, led the Thunder (9-9, 0-4 CCIW) .394 to .245 in hitting percentage, 51 to 39 in kills, 42 to 36 in assists, five to four in aces, 39 to 36 in digs and recorded all seven team blocks.
 
Riley Kindt (Fifth • Brookfield) registered 15 kills, hitting .650 on 20 total attacks while Sami Perlberg (So. • Chippewa Falls) notched 12 kills with a .407 hitting percentage. Izzy Coon (Jr. • Fond du Lac) paced Oshkosh with 23 assists.
 
Coon and Malia Winchel (So. • Oak Creek) each scored twice from the service line, while Lauren Grier (So. • Fond du Lac) blocked four attacks, including one solo and Abby Fregien (Sr. • Waukesha) had 15 digs.
 
The Thunder scored three early points in the first set and maintained the lead until Kindt kicked off a 6-1 Titan run with a kill. Hers was immediately followed by kills from Robyn Kirsch (Sr. • Wausau) and Grier and Grier and Olivia Breunig (Sr. • Sauk Prairie) capped off the run with a block. Wheaton pulled back within a point late at 23-22, however Perlberg and Kirsch hit back-to-back kills, putting Oshkosh up a set.
 
Oshkosh grabbed the first sizeable lead in the second set on Kindt's 3-3 tie-breaking kill that was followed by four more points for the Titans. Neither team scored more than two points in a row for much of the rest of the set, with the Titans slowly building up to a 21-16 edge. It was Grier's turn to start the set-winning run with a kill at 22-16. Breunig and Grier combined for another block, Winchel served up an ace and Grier added another kill for the remaining three points.
 
In the third set, the teams traded two points each after the Thunder scored the first point. UW-Oshkosh then went 5-0, taking a 7-3 edge it never relinquished. The Thunder stuck within two points until the Titans outscored Wheaton 5-1 in the middle of the set to make the score 18-13, scoring all five points on kills. A later 3-point Thunder spurt couldn't overcome the deficit and Perlberg ended the set and match with a kill.
 
The Titans will play one more match in the Papa Johns Invite on Saturday (Oct. 12), facing Augustana College (Ill.) at 11 a.m.