(WFRV) – The UW-Oshkosh women’s volleyball team returned to campus as national champions for the first time in program history, welcomed home by a crowd of celebrating fans.

The Titans capped a dominant postseason run with a 3–0 sweep of No. 5 La Verne in the NCAA Division III title match — completing the tournament without dropping a single set on their way to the crown.

For reaction from the team, click the video above for the full story.

As artificial intelligence continues to make appearances in almost all aspects of our lives, there have been rising concerns for whether it’s taking jobs, especially those of new college graduates entering the labor market.

Colorado State University student Eleanora Proffitt said AI has caused her to worry for the future in an already tight labor market.

“We’re already in a job shortage,” Proffitt said. “AI should be helping us, … not taking our jobs away.”

The unemployment rate of newly graduated college students reached its highest percentage since July 2021 — 5.8% — in April, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This number, compared to an unemployment rate of 4% for all workers that same month, has raised some alarms regarding AI’s impact.

Oxford Economics, a global economic advisory firm, stated in a recent report that “there are signs that entry-level positions are being displaced by artificial intelligence at higher rates.”

Various job sectors have been affected by AI differently. A working paper published by Stanford Digital Economy Lab found that between late 2022 and July 2025, areas of employment for young workers in software engineering, which SDEL referred to as an “AI-exposed occupation,” has declined by nearly 20%.

Other fields such as customer service, accounting and auditing, secretarial and administrative work, computer programming and sales revealed a similar pattern, according to the paper.

According to CNBC, Some major firms and companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Amazon and Walmart are starting to make the switch to AI for lower-level white-collar jobs because of its cheaper price and supposed efficiency. However, there are still many findings that claim AI is not a major component regarding recent unemployment rates for all recent college graduates.

“Will (AI) take jobs? Yes,” said Martin Shields, a Colorado State University professor of economics. “Will it take all the jobs? Certainly not. And will it create a lot of opportunities? Yes, it will.”

According to an article by The Budget Lab at Yale, the broader labor market has not been hugely disrupted since the release of ChatGPT — a popular AI chatbot developed by OpenAI. The lab notes that an impact on the labor market is likely to take much longer than just 33 months and can take decades to fully settle in.

A current trend in the labor market is that fewer people are quitting their jobs, and fewer employers are hiring because of economic uncertainty. This is known as a labor market tightening, which poses an even greater challenge for fresh college graduates trying to get their foot in the door.

Adjustments to technological progress has been done throughout history and are expected to a certain degree, but some are concerned that job losses may look a little different now, as AI is replacing jobs that were generally thought of as “safe.” Despite the current state of the job market, the Future of Jobs Report 2025 by World Economic Forum estimated that although AI could displace 92 million jobs by 2030, it could add 170 million new ones.

These positions could be in areas of AI development, research and safety, as well as robotics.

“People who can use the technology, lead the use of this technology, communicate it, can check it, can ask it the right questions — those people will thrive with that skill set,” Shields said.

A report by Lightcast, a labor insight platform, found that in an analysis of over 1.3 billion job postings, there has been a surge in demand for AI skills — and higher average pay for jobs that required them.

CSU alumnus and Chief Operating Officer for ZenRows, a web data company, Robert Mata said he has been in tech for 15 years and pays close attention to AI usage when hiring. Mata is not just interested in whether new hires use AI, but more so how they use the tool in the context of the role they are applying for.

“It goes way beyond, ‘Hey, do you use AI daily for X, Y, Z?’” Mata said. “It really depends on the role and the usage of AI.”

Mata said he has had to assess how potential candidates for various positions utilize AI. For example, he asks applicants for sales positions how they use AI to better find leads, source data, acquire contact information and more.

Taking on the potential growth and challenges brought by AI, CSU has begun integrating AI literacy into higher education. The webpage titled AI @ CSU has news related to AI, resources for learning how to use AI and pages describing the institution’s mission and vision with AI.

CSU also offers a range of classes available to students who wish to expand their skills in AI, with more to come. As the job market adjusts to new technology, experts suggested that no matter what field students dream of working in, learning how to better navigate AI and use it as a tool are what experts and the job market are alluding to as crucial in this job climate.

“Let’s use this tool,” Shields said. “Let’s recognize its limitations. Let’s recognize that there are a lot of things that we can do that it can’t and hone in on those skills.”

EVANSVILLE — Ashley Kaczmarski remembers when everything clicked into place this season.

Her North High School volleyball team was on the road at Heritage Hills. The Huskies lost the second set to the eventual sectional champions. Kaczmarski sensed her group was off that evening — none moreso than star setter Kenlee Barnard.

The coach pulled her senior captain aside during the break with a message: the team needed her. What transpired that night, and by extension the rest of the season, summed up what many in the program already knew. Barnard was going to lead the way.

Let’s start the indoor season off with a bang, shall we?

Meet, facility, program, and Ivy League records were broken at the Penn Opener on Friday and Saturday at the Ott Center for Track and Field. The men’s team notched wins in the heptathlon, long jump, pole vault, 60-meter hurdles, 1,000m run, 3,000m run, and the 4x400m relay. Members of the women’s team added wins in the pole vault, triple jump, 300m dash and 4x400m relay. The first indoor meet of the season offered an exciting look at what the indoor track and field season may hold for the Quakers.

“It’s always exciting to start the season after the whole fall of training for track and field, so it’s been fun to watch the team compete,” coach Steve Dolan said. “And one of the things that‘s special, I think, is to also watch the freshmen for the first time wearing the Penn uniform. We had a lot of great freshman performances today, along with upperclassmen, so that was a lot of fun.”

One year after the grand opening of the Ott Center, 14 schools came to compete in this year’s Penn Opener. The student-athletes from Delaware, Georgetown, Hampton, Rider, Saint Joseph’s, Temple, Penn, Princeton, Morgan State, Villanova, The College of NJ, Monmouth, Yale, and Penn State were joined by some unattached and national team athletes. 

Here are some standout performances from the Quakers.

While there were many stars at the meet, one student-athlete shone brighter than them all: freshman shot put thrower Jessica Oji. 

In her first ever collegiate competition, her 16.6m throw on her first attempt put her in the lead, which she never let up. She continued through her attempts, eventually throwing 17.15 meters on her best attempt out of the first five. On her final attempt, Oji stepped up to the plate and threw an incredible 17.72 meters — not just a program best, but notably half a meter more than the Ivy League record. To put this into perspective, only two out of 13 shot putters in the men’s competition threw further than that mark. On top of it all, the performance propels Oji to No.1 in the NCAA. 

“My first couple throws, they were okay. Coming into finals … I was feeling a little bit tired, I was trying to get one on my last throw, [I] was really shooting for a big number,” Oji said. “Extremely happy with this performance.”

According to throwing coach Isaiah Simmons, Oji came to Penn with big goals in mind.

“She’s put in a lot of work, and this is just the beginning. So we’re pretty excited how she’s starting,” Simmons said. “I know she told me she wants to throw 20 meters, break the national record, and compete at the international stage. So as long as I feel like we are pushing her towards those goals, then they’re my goals as well.”

Another impressive freshman was distance runner Joseph “Tiago” Socarras, who broke the program record in his first 1,000m run with a time of 2:20.39. 

The upperclassmen also rewrote the record books. Two more program records were set by junior jumper Adannia Agbo, who jumped 13.05 meters in the triple jump, as well as senior multis specialist Jake Rose, who won the men’s heptathlon with 5647 points. Rose starts this season as the defending Ivy League champion in the heptathlon. Agbo’s mark puts her second in the NCAA so far this season. 

Other notable freshman performers were jumper Leo Francis and sprinter Rianna Floyd. While the former took the win with 6.92 meters in the men’s long jump, Floyd ran a time of 38.75 in the 300m dash, placing her first out of 49 athletes. As the anchor for Penn’s A team in the 4×400 meter relay, she also played a significant role in its win by a margin of more than four seconds. 

The meet also brought some nationally competing non-collegiate athletes to the Ott Center. Ajeé Wilson, two-time Olympian and 2022 world indoor track and field champion in the 800 meters, won the women’s 600m race comfortably. The women’s 1,000m race went to 2024 Olympian, reigning indoor track and field national champion in the 800m race, and 2020 Nursing graduate Nia Akins. 

Following a holiday break, the Quakers will return to the Ott Center on Jan. 10, 2026 for the Penn Select.

Grace Martin, a volleyball player at Saint Thomas Aquinas, has been named this week’s KMBC-Hy-Vee Athlete of the Week for her exceptional performance and achievements in the sport.

Martin is a first-team All-American and a three-time state champion. She was recently awarded the Evelyn Gates Award, which is given to the best player in the area.

She is taking her volleyball talents to Arizona State next year.

Congratulations to our athlete of the week.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Both triple jump program records were shattered as Bellarmine University track and field opened the indoor season Saturday at the Commonwealth College Opener at the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center.

Junior Amelia Svidal broke her own women’s indoor program record in the triple jump after recording an 11.79m jump, which topped her 11.66 from the 2025 Rod McCravy Memorial. She placed fourth in the event and was also fourth in the long jump (5.34m).

Freshman Tola Taiwo made an auspicious collegiate debut by setting a new men’s indoor program record in the triple jump with a leap of 13.90m, which broke Bryan Cummings’ long-held mark of 13.78 from the 2017 Indianapolis Season Opener, along with Cummings’ freshman program record of 13.43 from the 2017 UIndy Collegiate Challenge. He placed fifth in the event.

Senior Jansen Story took top honors in the women’s 1000m (3:11.50), while senior Zander Hooten placed first in the men’s 60m hurdles (8.13) and junior Carter Olmsted snagged third (8.34).

Bellarmine’s men captured three of the top five placements in the 300m, as sophomore Grant King was second (34.31), senior Zac Hutslar was third (34.45) and junior Josiah Moore was fifth (34.56). King was a hair off Jackson Gordon’s program record (34.30) from last season’s Commonwealth College Opener.

Bellarmine is off until the Jan. 9-10 Rod McCravy Memorial at Norton SLC.

For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow BUKnights on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook.