2025 WIAC Volleyball

['95 Blugold]

Less than 2 weeks away from the start of the season and the Pre-season AVCA poll was just released today with 4 WIAC teams debuting in the top 25 and Point just sitting in on the outside at "#27".

2024 National Tournament Runner-up UW-Whitewater comes in at #2.
UW Oshkosh #6
UW Platteville #13
UW-Eau Claire #22

Can't wait for the season to get going.

['95 Blugold]

Pretty strong showing for the polled WIAC teams over the last 2 days to start the season.

Out East...

#2 UW-Whitewater goes 3-0 taking 3 (3-1) victories at the Christopher Newport's Captain Classic that included a win over  host #21 Christopher Newport.

#6 UW-Oshkosh goes out to Salisbury and goes 3-0 over 3 unranked opponents at the Salisbury University Margie Knight Classic.



Both UWEC and UWSP were out West at the Pikes Peak Challenge out in Colorado Springs.

#22 UW-Eau Claire went 3-1 with its lone loss coming to #14 East Texas Baptist. Blugolds nearly pulled off the reverse sweep after falling behind 0-2, but ETBU finished the 5th set with a 7-2 run after the Blugolds went up 12-9 in the 5 set to take the win.

UWSP had the roughest weekend after opening with a 3-0 win over Milwaukee School of Engineering as they also fell to ETBU, Edgewood College (2-3) and host Colorado College (1-3).


Down South...

#13 UW-Platteville headed South and had probably the most challenging slate of games and came out with a solid 2-1 record. Wins over #23 NYU and host #10 Trinity (TX) sandwiched a loss to #12 Millikin.

['95 Blugold]

Week 1 AVCA Poll Update

#2 UW-Whitewater (3-0): no change
#6 UW-Oshkosh (3-0): no change
#13 UW-Platteville (2-1): no change
#20 UW-Eau Claire (3-1): +2

Receiving Votes: UW-Stevens Point went from receiving 96 votes to 10.

Week ahead:

Should be smooth sailing for the Warhawks as they host their first invite of the year and face 4 unranked teams.

UW-Oshkosh hosts the Marty Petersen invitational and will be challenged heavily as they face 3 ranked teams in: #10 Wash U, #5 Emory, & #14 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Marian University Friday night rounds out the opponents for the weekend.

UW-Platteville got off to an early start this week as they already took care of Augustana (IL) tonight 3-0. Cornell is on the docket for Friday night.

UW-Eau Claire heads to University of Chicago for 3 matches that includes one against host #22 Chicago, Lawrence, and Illinois Institute of Technology.

KWIK TRIP - WIAC PLayers' of the Week Awards

Offense
Abby Stanwood, Senior (Excelsior, Minn./Minnetonka), Outside Hitter of UW-Eau Claire
Stanwood led the Blugolds to a 3-1 record to open the season at the Pikes Peak Challenge, hosted by Colorado College, with a team-high 52 kills. In three matches played, Stanwood averaged 4.73 kills per set in her 11 sets played. While hitting at a .327 percentage, she averaged 4.82 points per set and added 23 digs.



Defense
Kelsey Ewert, Senior (Hustisford, Wis./Hustisford), Defensive Specialist/Libero of UW-Platteville
Ewert recorded 5.09 digs per set as the Pioneers finished 2-1 against three ranked opponents at the Trinity University (Texas) Tournament. She posted 23 digs in the season-opening win over No. 23-ranked New York University and then added 12 more in a four-set loss to No. 12-ranked Millikin University (Ill.) to begin action on Aug. 30. Ewert concluded the weekend with 21 digs as the Pioneers swept No. 10-ranked Trinity (Tex.).



Setter
Aubrie Krzus, Junior (Wheaton, Ill./Warrenville South), Setter of UW-Whitewater
Krzus led UW-Whitewater to a 3-0 week to open the 2025 campaign. In the team's opener against No. 21-ranked Christopher Newport University (Va.), Krzus tallied 33 assists and added three aces to lead the Warhawks to the sweep. She followed with 45 assists against Coast Guard and 28 in a win over Catholic University (D.C.). Krzus dished out 10.60 assists per set, adding 1.30 kills per set and a total of five aces across three matches. She was named the Captains Classic MVP for her performance at the invitational.

[cubs]

UW-Oshkosh hosts the Marty Petersen invitational and will be challenged heavily as they face 3 ranked teams in: #10 Wash U, #5 Emory, & #14 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Marian University Friday night rounds out the opponents for the weekend.

Looks like UWO was up to the challenge, as they defeated all three ranked opponents by identical 3-1 scores to improve to 8-0 on the season.

['95 Blugold]

What a weekend for the ranked WIAC teams highlighted by UW-Oshkosh taking down 3 ranked opponents as cubs mentioned above.

UW-Oshkosh takes down #10 Wash U 3-1 with the final 2 sets going extra (20-25, 25-13, 26-24,26-24), #5 Emory (25-17, 25-22, 17-25, 25-18), #14 C-M-S (26-24, 22-25, 25-23, 25-23) and also unranked Marion in 3 sets.

UW-Whitewater went 4-0 at their first invite host of the season. I was incorrect in my above post in that I though all 4 opponents were unranked, but I missed that Berry College was ranked #24 who they took down in 5 in reverse sweep fashion (24-26, 17-25, 25-17, 25-20, 16-14). Sweeps of Concordia (WI), Pacific Lutheran & Elmhurst started off their invite.

UW-Eau Claire went down to Chicago and went 3-0 starting with a 3-1 victory over host #22 Chicago (23-25, 25-15, 25-15, 25-16) on Friday. Saturday was a sweep of both unranked Lawrence and Illinois Institute of Technology.

UW-Platteville did not have an invite, but did go on the road Friday night and swept Cornell College.