UW-Oshkosh Men's Volleyball Wins National Championship (4-10-11)
The UW-Oshkosh men's volleyball team went 9-0 over the course of three days to win its third Division I collegiate club national title at the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation championship Thursday (April 7) through Saturday (April 9) in Houston, Texas.
UW-Oshkosh (57-6) entered the 48-team tournament as the third seed and defeated the University of Buffalo 25-17, 25-18, Purdue University 25-12, 25-20 and #22 University of Texas 25-20, 25-19 to open pool play on Thursday.
Tyler Boddy (Sr. - New Ulm, Minn.) led the Titans with seven kills, five digs and two service aces against the Rams. Andrew Schinner (Sr. - Mequon) dished out 19 assists, Dan Ruys (Sr. - Kimberly) had five blocks and Jordan Mattingly (Sr. - Kaukauna) had five digs and two service aces. Bill Meidenbauer (Jr. - Waukesha) added five kills and Matt Maciejewski (Jr. - Greenfield) and Vince Odorizzi (Sr. - Pleasant Prairie) each had three kills.
Nick Mueller (So. - Kenosha) led UW-Oshkosh with seven kills on nine errorless attempts as eight players had three or more kills against the Boilermakers. Schinner provided 13 assists and Bob Hall (So. - Appleton) had 12 assists and three service aces. Ruys had four blocks and Odorizzi had three blocks and was a perfect three for three in kill attempts for the third match in a row.
The Titans registered 20 kills in the first set and had 33 total in the swept of the Longhorns. Meidenbauer slammed down 10 kills, Mueller added seven and Boddy had six to pace UW-Oshkosh. Schinner amassed 25 assists, Mattingly had four digs and Zach Johnson (So. - Mequon) had three blocks.
On Friday the Titans had to place first or second in their three team pool to advance to the gold bracket of the tournament. Behind a .538 team hitting percentage, UW-Oshkosh beat fellow Midwest Ten Conference foe #19 UW-Milwaukee 25-13, 25-17 to start the day.
Schinner had 21 assists and added four kills against the Panthers. Meidenbauer led the Titans with seven kills, Mattingly had five digs and Johnson had five kills, three blocks and two service aces.
Even with the victory, UW-Oshkosh needed to beat #11 Utah Valley University in at least one set to assure a spot in the gold bracket because UW-Milwaukee beat Utah Valley University earlier in pool play.
After losing their first set of the tournament, 25-16 the Titans buckled down and survived by winning the next two sets 27-25, 18-16 to win the pool and to advance to the gold bracket for the eighth time in the past nine seasons.
Boddy came up big in the match with 11 kills, including four in the deciding third set. Schinner totaled 29 assists and four digs and Meidenbauer had seven kills and two service aces. Mueller had three blocks and five kills and Johnson added five kills, two service aces and two blocks.
In the first round of the single elimination bracket on Saturday UW-Oshkosh beat #16 The Ohio State University 25-20, 25-21 to avenge the Titans lost to the Buckeyes in last year's national tournament. Meidenbauer racked up eight kills and Boddy and Ruys each had seven kills. Boddy collected three service aces and five blocks, Johnson had four blocks and Mattingly and Mueller each had four digs.
In the quarterfinals UW-Oshkosh destroyed #6 University of California-Davis 25-20, 25-18 behind a great team hitting performance. The Titans only had four hitting errors and hit .521, including .652 in set two. Meidenbauer led UW-Oshkosh with nine kills, Boddy added eight kills and Mueller and Ruys each had five. Ruys added three blocks, Mueller two service aces and Mattinlgy had eight digs. Schinner ran the offense to the tune of 24 assists.
In the semifinals, UW-Oshkosh met #2 Indiana University for the third time this season, with the Hoosiers getting the best of the Titans the first two times. Similar to the first two meetings, UW-Oshkosh won the first set only to see Indiana University come back and win the second stanza.
With the national championship within reach, the Titans sprinted out to an 8-4 lead in the third set, only to see the Hoosiers inch back to tie the score at 11-11. Knotted again at 12-12, the Titans sided out to take a one point advantage at 13-12. UW-Oshkosh took a 14-12 lead after an Indiana University player reached over the net for a violation. The Hoosiers closed to within 14-13 before Meidenbauer ended the match on his 12th kill of the contest.
Boddy added eight kills and Johnson helped out with six kills. Ruys pitched in four blocks and Mattingly came up big in the back row with nine digs. Meidenbauer picked up five digs and Boddy added three blocks. The Titans only had one receiving error in the match. The outcome marked the fifth consecutive time that UW-Oshkosh won a semifinal match in the third set by two points to advance to the national championship match.
With the win, UW-Oshkosh improved to 5-0 in national semifinal matches and reached the title match for the fifth time in the last seven years.
UW-Oshkosh faced another familiar foe in the #13 University of Notre Dame, a team that is also in the Midwest Ten Conference and a team that they were 1-1 against during the regular season.
In their first title match, the Irish started off strong beating the Titans in the first set 25-21 despite 17 kills by UW-Oshkosh. After the slow start, UW-Oshkosh responded by bolting to a 19-4 advantage in set two before winning 25-12. The Titans posted a 4-0 lead in the deciding set and held a 9-6 cushion until the Irish tied the score at 10-10. UW-Oshkosh took an 11-10 lead after a side out before Boddy served four straight points to end the match. The Titans were helped by three hitting errors during the run by the Irish and a block by Odorizzi and Johnson.
The Titans also received seven kills by Boddy and six kills by Mueller and Ruys. Schinner had 30 assists, Mattingly five digs, Ruys three blocks and Meidenbauer chipped in three service aces, four digs and two solo blocks.
"I am very proud of our team and excited for the guys," said head coach Brian Schaefer. "This is my best team every in terms of togetherness on and off the court and the team fulfilled their mission they set of winning a national championship after the loss in last year's tournament. I am especially proud of Boddy and Ruys, who emotionally took the team on their shoulders and would not let us lose. This is another special year in our program."
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