UW-Oshkosh Invitational Preview
UW-Oshkosh Invitational Preview
By Ricky Nelson
The No. 5 UW Oshkosh women's volleyball team is set to host four top-19 teams at its annual tournament this Friday and Saturday at Kolf Sports Center. And the Titan coaches would like nothing more than a shot at the No. 1 team in Saturday's championship.
Ranked teams joining the Titans at this year's Oshkosh Invitational will be No. 1 Juniata College (Pa.), No. 3 UW-Whitewater, No. 9 Carthage College and No. 19 UW-La Crosse.
Lakeland College, Milwaukee School of Engineering and UW-Stevens Point round out the field.
"We have five teams ranked in the top 19," said Brian Schaefer, the head coach of the Titans and organizer of the invitational. "That doesn't come along (around) here very often. We're pretty excited to be featuring all these good teams."
How good are the ranked teams?
Juniata is the defending NCAA Division III national champion and has been ranked No. 1 for all but one week of the season.
Whitewater was the 2005 national champ and has not moved from the No. 3 spot since the preseason poll in late August.
Carthage is responsible for Oshkosh's only loss this season.
La Crosse has four losses on the season, three of which were to Top 10 teams.
The good news for Oshkosh is that all four of those teams are in Pool A. The Titans' Pool B has the remaining unranked teams. The winners of Pool A and Pool B will meet in the championship on Saturday.
"It will be like learning things in the first pool," Schaefer said, "because, unfortunately, you have to set a schedule before the season even starts to let teams know who they're playing. This year, La Crosse has turned some heads. Stevens Point has had some injuries, but last year Stevens Point was better than La Crosse. So, we made that pool that way.
"Juniata wanted to come," Schaefer added. "Carthage and La Crosse both asked to play them. If you come, we're going to give you the matches you want. So, that left Lakeland and MSOE in our pool. It kind of just worked out that way."
If the Titans were to make it to the championship, which ranked team would the Oshkosh coaches like to face? After sifting through the coach-speak, Juniata was the unanimous choice.
"We'll have to be ready, and we'll take whoever we get," Schaefer said. "La Crosse is a good team. Carthage, we want to get revenge, if it happens to be them. Whitewater has always been a good rivalry, and there's mutual respect between the two programs. And everyone, obviously, wants to play Juniata and see what we got. So, I would like to play Juniata, if it works out that way."
The Titans are familiar with the rest of the teams, so Oshkosh assistant coach Ashley Fischer says bring on Juniata.
"I would want to see Juniata just because it's a different game," she said. "We know what Carthage brings to the table. We just have to bring our game and show them what we're made of. We know what Carthage does. We know how to beat Carthage. Whereas Juniata is going to be a new experience. We'd rather see them now instead of running into them at nationals and not know what they can do."
The Oshkosh coaches said surviving Pool B is not a given, but wasting a potential shot at playing Juniata is not on their weekend to-do list.
"I'm not saying we're going to automatically cakewalk to the No. 1 seed in our pool, because volleyball is a weird sport," Schaefer said. "Yeah, we already took care of Lakeland pretty easily (earlier this season), but they also didn't have their really good middle. So, you never know. And Stevens Point always plays with a lot of fire. But hopefully we get to play Juniata or Whitewater because that would be two top-five teams in the championship match. That would be fun."
If the Titans win the tournament, Schaefer said the biggest potential benefit would be reflected in the NCAA tournament seeds.
"If we do win the tournament, it's not like, 'Oh, here comes the national championship' because anybody can beat anybody on any given day, especially the elite teams," he said. "Obviously, our team has confidence right now. And if we can beat a team like Juniata or Whitewater, that will give us an advantage come regional time because that would say a lot that we should host."
After knocking off then-No. 4 Emory University (Ga.) in three games last weekend, Fischer thinks Oshkosh is ready for the stacked invitational.
"It's going to be a challenge, but this is our test to see where we're really at," she said. "We know we're good. We just beat the No. 4 team in the country, but now we've got the possibility of playing some more Top 25 teams."
THE FIELD
POOL A POOL B
No. 9 Carthage College (19-2) Lakeland College (13-8)
No. 1 Juniata College (21-2) Milwaukee School of Engineering (7-11)
No. 19 UW-La Crosse (18-4) No. 5 UW Oshkosh (22-1)
No. 3 UW-Whitewater (19-2) UW-Stevens Point (14-7)
THE SCHEDULE
Friday
5 p.m. Juniata vs. Whitewater
Carthage vs. La Crosse
Oshkosh vs. Lakeland
MSOE vs. Stevens Point
7:15 p.m. Juniata vs. La Crosse
Carthage vs. Whitewater
Oshkosh vs. Stevens Point
Lakeland vs. MSOE
Saturday
10 a.m. La Crosse vs. Whitewater
Juniata vs. Carthage
Oshkosh vs. MSOE
Stevens Point vs. Lakeland
12:15 p.m. #4 Pool A vs. #4 Pool B
#3 Pool A vs. #3 Pool B
#2 Pool A vs. #2 Pool B
#1 Pool A vs. #1 Pool B
THE STATISTICAL LEADERS
JUNIATA
Kills: Thomas 258, Albert 196, Johnston 151
Assists: Kozak 735, Strauss 207, Me. Sollenberger 45
Digs: Me. Sollenberger 436, Mo. Sollenberger 179, Ritchey 177
Blocks: Albert 59, Lamens 40, two tied with 27
Aces: Me. Sollenberger 44, Mo. Sollenberger 41, Ritchey 31
WHITEWATER
Kills: Polk 198, Sorenson 177, Schultz 173
Assists: Lazotte 718, Karls 223, Nelson 37
Digs: Conlin 294, Schultz 218, Nelson 194
Blocks: Polk 56, Theis 56, Nelson 31
Aces: Conlin 31, Karls 23, Nelson 19
OSHKOSH
Kills: Rosenbaum 264, Vail 205, Fischer 150
Assists: Stumpf 794, Vara 180, Vail 20
Digs: Schmidt 350, Smith 219, Cahoon 218
Blocks: Rosenbaum 85, Ray 70, Vail 58
Aces: Schmidt 40, Masephol 34, Cahoon 32
CARTHAGE
Kills: Kuehl 228, Swoboda 174, Carlino 168
Assists: Bauer 481, Flanagan 252, Stein 35
Digs: Lundgren 400, Carlino 183, Bauer 162
Blocks: Simmons 80, Pedrigi 60, Swoboda 54
Aces: Carlino 38, Bauer 34, Lundgren 23
LA CROSSE
Kills: Carlson 298, Stankus 283, Walch 212
Assists: Dries 993, Stankus 76, Walch 13
Digs: Tate 353, Schoonover 303, Stankus 288
Blocks: Walch 69, Carlson 42, Starck 39
Aces: Stankus 36, Schoonover 21, Walch 17
STEVENS POINT
Kills: Maus 301, Richter 208, Guell 161
Assists: Wittmann 599, Mulhern 140, O'Brien 20
Digs: Mix 223, Maus 196, Behnke 193
Blocks: Maus 94, Richter 37, Nora 34
Aces: Wittmann 25, Behnke 25, Guell 15
LAKELAND
Kills: Paulus 194, Domask 177, Linger 148
Assists: Sparling 561, Raeder 185, Strebelinski 28
Digs: Strebelinski 247, Paulus 231, Domask 203
Blocks: Linger 67, Bruni 42, Sparling 33
Aces: Young 22, Paulus 19, Linger 14
MSOE
Kills: Sowinski 286, Mavis 197, Ganske 136
Assists: Glapinski 579, Mavis 38, Pichotta 23
Digs: Sowinski 361, Mavis 283, Glapinski 260
Blocks: Brown 47, Ganske 36, Ellwanger 33
Aces: Sowinski 66, Mavis 20, Pichotta 17