OSHKOSH — The UW-Oshkosh women’s volleyball team is looking to win back-to-back national titles.
The scary thing for its opponents this year as the Titans look to run it back: They are only missing one starter from last year's championship squad.
UWO already off to a 6-0 start this season.
"You know, I don't know that I'll ever have words to describe what that felt like in the moment," said head coach Jon Ellmann about winning last year’s title.
"Just have that breath of relief like wow we did it was just an amazing feeling I mean best feeling I've probably ever had," added senior Lauren Grier.
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What makes the Titans so dangerous — outside of their talent — is the culture set by Ellmann as he enters his ninth year at the helm.
"He's awesome. I can talk to him about anything, which is like really special, just knowing that he doesn't, he cares about me more as a person than as a volleyball player and an athlete is really special," senior Samantha Perlberg said.
"This volleyball thing is maybe 4% of what we do on a 4% of our life and so to be able to just help people unlock what's possible for them on a daily basis, I think we end up learning more from our players than they actually learn from us, so just a huge amount of gratitude," Ellmann said.
Something that helps build that culture happens right after practice, when the team sits in a circle for a "plus-delta" — an exercise where players share feedback on what they observed.
"It's just a nice way to recognize good things that happen and then things we want to carry forward," Grier said.
For a program coming off three straight WIAC titles and a national championship, Ellmann says plus-delta keeps his team focused on the present.
"Anything that takes the focus away from this uh win being objectively good or a loss being objectively bad, right? Like, um, is where we want to operate and so that gives us a chance whether we win or lose, have a good practice or bad to talk about what's going well and where we want to take things in the next day and so I think it just helps us stay a little bit more present."
And that’s exactly what his players are doing as they look to bring home another title.
"We kind of just try to stay where our feet are and not let expectations that other people may have or expectations that we put on ourselves drive us to places that we aren't right now," Grier said.
