OSHKOSH, Wis.- UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball entered the second week of a three-week homestand on Friday (Sept. 12), hosting the University of La Verne (Calif.) in its first match of the UW-Oshkosh Invitational.
 
UW-Oshkosh (9-1), ranked third in the nation by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, won the first set 25-19 and the second set 27-25. The No. 5 Leopards (7-0) took a 25-23 win in the third set and the fourth 25-18 to force a fifth set. La Verne outscored Oshkosh 15-4 in the final set to hand the host its first loss of the season.
 
The Titans hit 52 kills on 176 total attacks with 34 errors for a .102 hitting percentage against the Leopards' 56 kills (.153). Oshkosh recorded 49 assists, 71 digs, seven blocks, and seven aces.
 
Samantha Perlberg (Chippewa Falls/Chippewa Falls) hit .250 on the night with 24 kills while registering two block assists and 13 digs. Izzy Coon (Fond du Lac/St. Mary's Springs Academy) paced UW-Oshkosh with 30 assists, followed by 15 from Jaclyn Dutkiewicz (Franklin/Franklin). She and Grace Juergens (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Community) served three aces in the match and Callie Panasuk (Oak Creek/Oak Creek) tallied a team best 19 digs.
 
The Titans took a commanding lead to start the opening set, scoring the first seven points. The Leopards took their first timeout after five points in an attempt to end the run, however Oshkosh added two points out of the break to complete the spurt. After the teams traded points for a while, La Verne closed the seven point gap with a 7-0 run that included four kills to tie the set at 12-12. Coon then scored the first of four consecutive UW-Oshkosh points with an ace. She tallied another, followed by a Leopard attack error and a kill from Riley Borrowman (Oswego, Ill./Oswego). La Verne made the score 17-15 with three straight points, but the Titans extended their edge again with three attack errors committed by the Leopards and a pair of Perlberg kills. Hannah Moe (Oconto/Oconto) brought Oshkosh to set point on a kill and following two points for La Verne, the Titans took a 1-0 set lead on Perlberg's fifth kill of the match.
 
UW-Oshkosh responded to La Verne's second set-opening kill with a kill, a block, an ace, and an unforced error to take a 4-1 lead early. The Titans led by as much as five points at 11-6 before the Leopards closed the gap and took a late 22-20 lead on a 4-0 run. UW-Oshkosh tied the score with two points and reached set point twice before La Verne committed an attack error for the 25th point.
 
Lauren Grier (Fond du Lac/Fond du Lac) hit a kill and Juergens laid down an ace for the first two points of the third set before three consecutive Titan points stretched the lead to 7-3. The Leopards ate away at the edge with short runs, eventually breaking a 16-16 tie with four straight kills by Mya Ray and an Oshkosh attack error. Perlberg recorded back-to-back kills to pull back within a point at 24-23, however La Verne won its first set on the following serve.
 
The Leopards touched an attack down on the edge of the court to open the fourth set before UW-Oshkosh counted off five straight points go up, 5-1. Grier began the run with a kill and Perlberg added another kill in the mix with three unforced Leopard errors. Runs of three and four points flipped the edge in La Verne's favor. The Leopards held the Titans to one more three-point run while adding two 4-0 runs and a pair of 3-0 spurts, including the final three points of the set.
 
La Verne dominated the fifth set, following the first two points with a trio of 4-0 runs. The Leopards held the Titans to four points in the set – two kills by Moe and two by Perlberg.
 
Friday night's meeting was the second between the teams in three years. UW-Oshkosh and La Verne last met in the third round of the 2023 NCAA Division III Championship during the Oshkosh Regional. The Titans defeated the Leopards, 3-1, to win their home regional tournament and advance to the national quarterfinal round for the seventh time in program history.
 
The Titans will face No. 8 Hope College (Mich.) and the University of Chicago (Ill.), which is receiving votes, on Saturday (Sept. 13) at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. respectively. The Maroons defeated Hope in Friday's first match, 3-2. Chicago won the first two sets before the Flying Dutch forced a fifth set with wins in the third and fourth sets. UW-Oshkosh defeated both programs in the most recent meeting – a 3-0 win over the Flying Dutch in Holland, Michigan on September 14, 2024, and a 3-1 victory over the Maroons in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Division III Championship in Marietta, Ohio.