MADISON, Wis.- UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball, the 2025 NCAA Division III champion, was voted to win its fourth consecutive WIAC regular season title in 2026 in a poll conducted by the league's head coaches and sports information directors.
 
UW-Oshkosh, which finished the 2025 campaign with a 34-3 record, won the first national championship in program history and the 51st in UW-Oshkosh history in Bloomington, Ill. on Dec. 6 by defeating University of La Verne (Calif.) in three sets. By winning all six of their matches in straight sets, the Titans completed the first sweep of the national tournament since Juniata College (Pa.) won each of its matches in 2004.
 
Jon Ellmann, the only head coach in league history to be named the women's volleyball coach of the year in four consecutive seasons, enters his ninth season leading the Titans. He owns a 208-69 overall record and a 39-17 mark in conference play. The Titans have won at least 17 matches in each of the previous eight seasons under Ellmann and have reached at least 29 victories in the last four.
 
Fourteen letterwinners return to the court for Ellmann and his staff in 2026, including six of seven starters.
 
Samantha Perlberg (Chippewa Falls/Chippewa Falls), the reigning American Volleyball Coaches Association Region VII Player of the Year and WIAC Offensive Player of the Year as well as an AVCA All-America First Team selection, highlights the returners. A four-time WIAC Offensive Player of the Week and the AVCA Division III National Player of the Week for the period of Sept. 1-7, Perlberg was named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America ® First Team after the season concluded.
 
Lauren Grier (Fond du Lac/Fond du Lac) and Grace Juergens (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Community), who secured respective All-America Second Team and Honorable Mention status as well as 2025 WIAC All-Defensive honoree Callie Panasuk (Oak Creek/Oak Creek) represent the rest of Oshkosh's returning All-WIAC selections.
 
Izzy Coon (Fond du Lac/St. Mary's Springs Academy), a setter, was the only starter lost when she graduated in the spring.
 
Following UW-Oshkosh in the league's preseason poll was UW-Eau Claire (30-5, 6-1 WIAC) in second place, UW-Whitewater (26-8, 3-4) in third, UW-Platteville (18-12, 4-3) in fourth, UW-Stevens Point (16-16, 3-4) in fifth, UW-La Crosse (21-12, 2-5) in sixth, UW-Stout Polytechnic (17-9, 2-5) in seventh and UW-River Falls (15-15, 1-6) in eighth.
 
Oshkosh returns to the court on Sept. 4-5 with a trip to the West Coast for the University of Puget Sound (Wash.) Premiere. The Titans was Pacific University (Ore.) and Pacific Lutheran University (Wash.) in the first day and Franklin & Marshall College (Pa.) and the host Loggers on the second day.
 
The Titans play eight more matches before kicking off conference play on Sept. 25 when they host UW-River Falls. The remainder of their home WIAC contests are Oct. 7 against UW-La Crosse, Oct. 14 against UW-Stout Polytechnic and Nov. 6 against UW-Whitewater.
 
Road WIAC matches include at UW-Stevens Point on Oct. 2, at UW-Eau Claire on Oct. 24 and at UW-Platteville on Oct. 28.
 
Eau Claire and Whitewater also represented the WIAC in the Division III Championship in 2025. Eau Claire reached the quarterfinal round after winning the Pittsburgh Regional while Whitewater lost in the second round of the Bloomington Regional.
 
In all, 12 of Oshkosh's 28 regular season matches will be played against programs that competed in the 2025 Division III tournament. Nonconference opponents that played in last year's tournament are: Pacific Lutheran on Sept. 4, Franklin & Marshall on Sept. 5, Cornell College (Iowa) on Sept. 12, Edgewood University on Sept. 15, University of Northwestern (Minn.) and Juniata College (Pa.) on Sept. 19, University of Dubuque (Iowa) on Oct. 3, Hope College (Mich.) and Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.) on Oct. 10 and Illinois Wesleyan University on Oct. 17.
 
Oshkosh is seeking its fifth straight Division III postseason appearance and the 22nd in program history. The Titans own eight trips to the final site of the national tournament, including a national runner-up finish in 1994, fourth-place finishes in 1991 and 1996, quarterfinal appearances in 2008, 2023 and 2024 and a semifinal round appearance in 2009.