OSHKOSH, Wis.- UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball entered Thursday's (Nov. 13) WIAC Tournament (presented by Culver's) semifinal round with a 4-14 record against UW-Whitewater. The Titans left Kolf Sports Center with a 3-0 sweep of the Warhawks and clinched a trip to the championship match for the third consecutive season.
 
The Titans (27-3), ranked fourth in NCAA Division III by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, earned the victory in set scores of 26-24, 25-23, 25-19. The win was the first over Whitewater for Oshkosh since the third-place match of the 2005 tournament and its first sweep of the Warhawks since the championship match of the 1994 tournament. The teams met in each of the last two championship bouts and the Warhawks took both, winning 3-0 in 2023 and 3-2 in 2024.
 
Oshkosh recorded a .120 attack percentage with 43 kills and 26 errors on 142 total attacks. The Titans also led the No. 11 nationally ranked Warhawks (25-7) in assists (40-28) and digs (71-64) while Whitewater blocked 11 attacks to the Titans' five.
 
Samantha Perlberg (Chippewa Falls/Chippewa Falls), named to her third All-WIAC First Team and selected as the league's offensive player of the year on Thursday, led all players with 12 kills and added 13 digs for her 15th double-double of the season. She was closely followed by fellow all-conference first team selection Grace Juergens (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Community), who recorded an 11-kill, 11-dig double-double with a pair of service aces.
 
Setters Izzy Coon (Fond du Lac/St. Mary's Springs Academy) and Jaclyn Dutkiewicz (Franklin/Franklin) both registered 17 assists while All-WIAC Honorable Mention honoree Coon paced the Titans with 15 digs. Lauren Grier (Fond du Lac/Fond du Lac), Oshkosh third 2025 All-WIAC First Team selection, had five kills and a team-best three blocks.
 
The Titans notched three straight points after Whitewater opened the match with a pair of points. After the Warhawks briefly reclaimed the lead at 4-3, Juergens recorded a kill to start a 5-0 run. Oshkosh retained the lead and fought off ties at 14-14 and 15-15 before the lead swapped one more time. The Titans used a pair of three-point spurts to take a 22-18 edge. Juergens brought the score to set point, and Oshkosh went up a set on an unforced error for the Warhawks.
 
Whitewater jumped out to an early 8-2 lead in the second set, adding five points to the first three points of the set to surround kills by Maren Motz (Hartland/Arrowhead Union) and Perlberg. Following a 4-0 run, the Titans continued to eat away at the deficit with short bursts, scoring in sets of points before going 5-0 to both take the lead and win the set. Riley Borrowman (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) and Motz started the run with a block and Perlberg earned in kill in four straight serves to close out the set.
 
The teams traded points at the start of the third set and Oshkosh broke the cycle with four points for a 6-3 lead, taking a lead it never gave up. Short runs of three and five points slowly grew the Titans' edge and their defense held the Warhawks to no more than two points in a row in the decisive set. Oshkosh got the serve after a late service error made the score 23-19. Juergens and Perlberg registered back-to-back kills for the final two points of the match.
 
The Titans will host two seed UW-Eau Claire (27-3) at Kolf Sports Center on Saturday (Nov. 15) at 7 p.m. The Blugolds swept sixth-seeded UW-La Crosse (21-12) in Thursday's other semifinal match to reach their 11 conference tournament title match. Oshkosh won the conference game against the Blugolds, 3-1, at Kolf on November 7. In a pair of head-to-head matchups with Eau Claire in the tournament championship, Oshkosh won both matches in 1990 and 2008.