The UW-Oshkosh men’s volleyball team captured the Midwest Ten Conference championship without losing a set for its sixth championship in the last eight years on Saturday in Sheboygan.
Head coach Brian Schaefer said he gave credit to the players he’s coached all of the years to win six out of eight titles.
“A lot of good teams have come out of this conference,” Schaefer said. “I mean, we even won when Marquette won the national title in 2005 and Lakeland won it in 2008. We’ve just been that good in that kind of conference.”
Junior Dan Ruys said that it was “awesome” being in the conference championship, and winning it as well.
“It was a blast,” Ruys said. “We went in confident that we were going to win it all, and we knew we were going to face Lakeland in the finals.”
The Titans (25-2), ranked fourth in the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation, entered single elimination play as the number two seed after finishing behind Lakeland College in the regular season standings. The runner-up finish snapped the Titans’ seven-year string of winning the regular season title.
According to Schaefer, the Titans felt like they needed to make a statement after being named runner-up in the conference.
“We wanted to keep our streak going,” Schaefer said. “But winning the Midwest Ten Conference was rewarding in its self.”
To get the second seed in the championship play, the Titans beat UW-Milwaukee 25-21 and 25-21, and Iowa State University 25-19, 25-18.
Senior Mike Cotter led the Titans with six kills against the UW-Milwaukee Panthers, and fellow senior Danny Hessling notched six kills of his own against the Cyclones.
In the quarterfinals of single elimination, the Titans were matched up with the Panthers and again were able to get by a little easier, winning 25-17 and 25-18.
Sophomore Bill Meidenbauer led the team with 10 kills and two blocks, senior Nate Sederberg provided 26 assists and three digs, senior Aaron Wayne scooped up seven digs and Daniel Hessling added seven kills and two blocks. Freshman Zach Johnson snapped off three aces, all in the second set, and junior Tyler Boddy amassed five kills, two aces, three digs and another two aces in the second set.
The Titans faced the University of Notre Dame in the semifinals for only the second time of the season, after beating them 25-21, 25-23 back on Feb. 6. Oshkosh was able to roll past the Irish, winning 25-14 and 25-23 in the second set.
Oshkosh had 13 kills in 14 attempts to start the match with the easy win in the first frame. In the second set, things turned the other way as the Titans fell behind 22-18 after multiple hitting errors. Thanks in part to solo blocks by Ruys and Meidenbauer, Oshkosh inched back to 23-23. The Titans then finished the match with a 7-1 scoring run to head to the finals.
Meidenbauer led the Titans with nine kills, Boddy added five kills and Wayne six digs. Sederberg dished out 21 assists and Mike Cotter finished with five kills.
In the finals, the Titans met up with Lakeland College. After beating the Muskies in the Hoosier-Illini Classic, the Titans were able to shut them down in the finals (25-21, 25-23) to capture the Midwest Ten Conference championship.
With the win, the Titans improved to 4-1 on the season against Lakeland College after winning the first set and nearly blowing a 22-18 lead in the second frame. Trailing by four points, the Muskies got a side-out and then three straight points to tie the score at 22-22.
Ruys said he and the team were glad they could have one more game for bragging rights against the Muskies.
“We always play Lakeland at least seven or eight times a year,” he said. “I think we have a little more talent on our side than they do, and if we see them next weekend I think we can beat them for a fifth time.”
From there Oshkosh took a 23-22 lead. Lakeland College tied the score again at 23-23, but then the Titans earned match point at 24-23 on a kill by Hessling. Ruys and Boddy ended the contest with a block.
“That was pretty exciting, I guess,” Ruys said about his block to win the set. “There was a lot of plays that obviously led up to that. We knew we had to get that point because we were serving, and I was just lucky enough to jump up and knock it down.”
Meidenbauer led the Titans for the fourth straight match with nine kills. Boddy slammed down eight kills, while freshman Harris Jorgenson tallied six kills and Ruys five. Hessling provided three blocks, and Sederberg ran the offense with 29 assists and four digs.
This weekend the Titans travel to Whitewater to compete in the Wisconsin Volleyball Conference Championship.
Schaefer says the goals for the Division I and Division II Oshkosh teams are to win the tournament.
“Our Division II team is a huge frontrunner,” Schaefer said. “As for our Division I team, we’ll probably face Lakeland again in the finals.”
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