Titans Win WVC Championship (4-4-09)
The UW-Oshkosh men's volleyball team captured its seventh Wisconsin Volleyball Conference State Championship with a thrilling 25-21, 21-25, 15-11 victory over rival Lakeland College on Saturday (April 4) in Milwaukee.
UW-Oshkosh started off the match strong recorded three blocks in the opening five points to take an early lead. Aaron Wayne (Sr. - New Berlin) tallied two straight service aces to give the Titans an insurmountable 20-15 advantage as UW-Oshkosh coasted to the early lead in the contest.
Hitting errors plagued UW-Oshkosh in the second set as the team hit a paltry .137 in the stanza setting up a deciding third-set showdown. After both teams traded points in the early going, the Titans inched out to a 9-6 cushion forcing a Muskies timeout.
Lakeland College responded with a 4-1 run to knot the score at 10-10. From there, Dan Ruys (So. - Kimberly) put down a ball to stop the run and Bill Meidenbauer (Fr. - Waukesha) came up with two clutch kills sandwiched between a Lakeland College side-out giving the Titans a 13-11 advantage. Nathan Sederberg (Sr. - Racine) ended the match at the service line with two tough serves and some help from hitting errors by the Muskies.
The Titans finished the third set with 10 kills and had nine of their 16 digs in the match.
"Our defense came up big in the third set," said head coach Brian Schaefer. "We did not record a block, but we funneled balls to our players in the back row and they did their job. Aaron Wayne and Tyler Boddy (So. - New Ulm, Minn.) had some tough digs that gave us momentum at the end."
John Erickson (Sr. - Ripon), the tournament most valuable player, led the Titans with 10 kills and three blocks. All-tournament team members Danny Hessling (Sr. - Greenfield) and Meidenbauer each added six kills and Sederberg and Aaron Lang (Jr. - Appleton) had five each.
Wayne finished with six digs and three service aces and Sederberg dished out 16 assists. Andy Schinner (So. - Mequon) had 15 assists and Meidenbauer had two service aces.
UW-Oshkosh, which entered the weekend as the third-ranked team in the nation holds a 3-1 advantage over fourth-ranked Lakeland College in four meetings this season.
In the 17 years that UW-Oshkosh has been a member of the WVC, they have reached the semi-finals every year and now hold a 7-2 mark in championship matches.
UW-Oshkosh reached the championship match with a 25-14, 25-20 quarterfinal win over UW-Stevens Point and a 25-19, 25-21 semi-final victory over 15th-ranked Marquette University.
Schinner led the Titans against the Pointers with 16 assists and Lang and Meidenbauer each had six kills. The Titans hit .625 in the match.
Erickson came up big in the victory over the Golden Eagles with 11 kills on 13 attempts and Sederberg ran the offense with 14 assists and also had five kills and two service aces. Lang and Meidenbauer added five kills each and Hessling and Meidenbauer each had three blocks.
UW-Oshkosh only had two players record a hitting error against Marquette University as the team hit .542 in the match.
In earlier matches during the weekend UW-Oshkosh finished the regular season slate by going 3-1 to share the WVC title with Lakeland College.
In Friday's action UW-Oshkosh beat Carthage College, 25-9, 25-17, beat Marquette University, 25-21, 25-22 and lost to Lakeland College, 15-25, 20-25. On Saturday, UW-Oshkosh dominated 25th-ranked UW-Whitewater, 25-10, 25-21 to finish the regular season with a 13-1 mark.
Against the Red Men UW-Oshkosh was led by Sederberg with seven kills and Parker Gross (Fr. - Appleton) added six kills. The Titans recorded 13 service aces in the match with Lang and Wayne producing three each. Sederberg had 12 assists and Schinner added 10 as the Titans hit .629 in the match.
Meidenbauer led the Titans with eight kills in the contest against the Golden Eagles. Erickson added six kills and Boddy and Sederberg each had five kills as the team achieved a .532 hitting percentage in the match. Boddy and Ruys each had four blocks and Sederberg dished out 17 assists.
The Titans offense struggled against the Muskies as the team hit .246 in the match. Erickson had eight kills and Sederberg six to pace UW-Oshkosh. Boddy and Wayne each had four digs and Sederberg had 15 assists and three solo blocks.
In the win over the Warhawks, UW-Oshkosh relied on tough serving to keep UW-Whitewater's offense in check. The Titans recorded 10 service aces, four by Lang and three by Hessling in the rout. Meidenbauer had six kills and Ruys provided three blocks. Sederberg had 12 assists and Schinner 10 as the duo combined to run UW-Oshkosh's offense.
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