JV Men's Volleyball Article- Final Draft

OSHKOSH- The UW-Oshkosh men’s junior varsity volleyball team dominates its competition at the Wisconsin Volleyball Conference tournament and brings home the Division II conference title for the third year in a row.
On the first day of competition, the Titans faced UW-Stevens Point II and won that match in two games convincingly by the scores of 25-18 and 25-12. Junior setter Brandon Kirkland led the team with 17 assists, added one service ace, two digs and one block. Junior middle blocker Brandon Weimann and junior right-side hitter Phil Brace combined for a total of eight kills on 13 errorless attempts. Senior left-side hitter Tim Weis had a match high eight digs defensively.
“We came out fired up and ready to play for the second weekend in a row,” said head coach Jason Wheelock. “After taking runners-up to Illinois II at MIVA’s, the guys just wanted a win and a big one at that.”
The Titans kept their intensity level high rolling into their next match against Marquette University II. The Titans won in two games by the scores of 25-18 and 25-21. Freshman left-side hitter Mike Callaway led the offensive attack with nine kills and added one service ace and a dig. Senior middle blocker Nathan Malewiski added six kills of his own and two blocks. Kirkland dished out 17 assists and had a team high five digs.
“We just felt like we had a really good match against Stevens Point and that helped us keep rolling,” said Kirkland.
To end their first day of competition, the Titans faced UW-Platteville II and won in two games by the count of 25-18 and 25-16. Kirkland handed out 21 assists, collected four service aces, two digs and one block. Weis led the team offensively with seven kills on nine attempts.
The next day of play, they faced Northland Baptist Bible College and won the match 25-22 and 25-19. Weis hit 1.000 percent in the match, going eight for eight on kills and. He also added two digs and one assist. Kirkland again had a team high assists with 23. Junior libero Jordan Jung collected a team high six digs for the Titans.
This win led the Titans to meet Lakeland College II in the championship match. As the crowd was roaring and the players on their bench were screaming, the Titans took game one from the Muskies by the score of 25-20. Their defense in the second game took an unexpected collapse as the Muskies took control of the match offensively, claiming game two 25-17. After an intense rally talk during the intermission between games two and three from Wheelock, the Titans came out hot and ready to play for the third game as they collected three quick service aces to grab an early lead. Lakeland’s defense was quickly disassembled as the Titans ran a wide variety of offensive attacks to keep the Muskies guessing. The Titans won the third game by the score of 15-11. Kirkland had 23 assists, two service aces and five digs in the three-game match. Malewiski led the offense with 10 kills on 16 attempts. Callaway, Brace and Jung combined for 12 total digs defensively.
“We played really well all weekend,” said Wheelock. “We had some bad plays here and there but we hung in there and pull out some great wins.”
Kirkland was awarded with the Most Valuable Player of the tournament as well as for the regular season. Weis and Malewiski earned all-tournament team nods.
“Overall I was very impressed with the way our second team performed this weekend,” said head coach of the varsity team Brian Schaefer. “They showed some real heart and that should definitely carry over into nationals for them.”
Next up for the Titans is the Division II National Tournament in Kansas City, MO Apr. 14-16.