dj_paige

Yes, that is true. We may be in for a bumpy ride. Or we may wind up on top of the MAC.

The UB Volleyball team swept Akron tonight, not allowing the Zips more than 20 points in any set. Junior libero Maria Futey recorded her 1,000th career assist during the match, and fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh recorded her 1,000th career point during the match. The Bulls are now 7–2 in the MAC and in third place; and 17–4 overall. Junior libero Maria Futey Fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh Buffalo stifled the Zips offense, not allowing the Zips to hit above 0.114 in any set, and the Bulls hit 0.229 or above in each set. Buffalo never trailed in the first set. They opened a 4–0 lead and although Akron would tie the score at 7, Buffalo went on a 10-3 run en route to a 25–18 win. In that span, senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská had 3 kills, senior right side Stacia Gollogly had two kills and freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin had 2 kills. The Bulls also never trailed in the second set, winning 25–20. Abby Leigh had 4 kills and a block in the set, and Trebichavská had five kills. The Bulls fell behind 3–0 in the third set, but after Buffalo trailed 8–7, they went on a 5–0 run and wound up winning 25–15. Trebichavská finished with 15.5 point on 13 kills, 1 aces and 2 blocks. This was the 6th straight match in which Trebichavská was the leading scorer. Abby Leigh was second with 12 points, on 7 kills (with just 1 error), 3 aces and 3 blocks. Fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara, who entered the match leading the NCAA in hitting percentage at 0.474, hit 0.467 for the match with 8 kills and just 1 error. I guess Okwara's hitting percentage will drop a smidge, but still a stellar job by Okwara. Junior setter Mandy Leigh had 35 assists and 9 digs. Futey had 9 digs and grad student outside hitter Maurine Calande led the team with 10 digs. Other Stuff Mandy Leigh recorded her 3,000th career assist over the previous weekend, in matches at Toledo. After tonight's match, she has 3,095 assists, and she is on a pace that would put her ahead of Amy Brown (2002–2005) for most career assists. She has 10.11 assists per set, also ahead of Brown. Play of the Match™ — at 24–16 in the first set, the Bulls front line not only managed to keep the ball alive but turned it into a kill. Akron setter Eliska Vytiskova's attack was barely kept off the floor by Abby Leigh, who had served. The ball went into the net, Forlin then barely kept the ball of the floor after it caromed out of the net, the ball popped up in the air and Mandy Leigh two-handed the ball deep in the Akron left back corner, where the dig was unable to keep the ball in play. Kill for Mandy Leigh, but it's not quite a pineapple, as it was a two-handed shot and the digger did get her hands on the ball. Unusual call challenged by Buffalo coach Scott Smith, successfully — with Buffalo leading 19–15 in the first set, a pass from Futey appeared to be headed into the scorer's table, and Mandy Leigh chased after it. The referee appeared to blow his whistle before the ball actually went out of play, and just a fraction of a second later Leigh was actually able to make a play on the ball. But the whistle had blown. After a review, the official did determine the ball was not out of play when the whistle blew, and the point should be replayed. Lauren Otten, Kaboom! Three big kills on just three swings for Lauren Otten, a sophomore outside hitter, who normally doesn't get to play much. Who was that mysterious UB player wearing #18? There is no #18 on the roster. It looked like Forlin's twin sister. Forlin is listed as #14 on the roster, and she has won that number all year. Could it be there are two of them? Buffalo will face Ball State twice this weekend at Alumni Arena, on Friday, October 20 at 6pm and the next day at 4pm. Both matches will be on ESPN+. Ball State currently is tied for the lead in the MAC with Western Michigan, both of them with 8–0 records.

The UB Volleyball team and Toledo played two eerily similar five set matches on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. In both matches, Buffalo lost the first two sets, then the Bulls won sets 3 and 4, and in both fifth sets, Buffalo fell behind early, and then later both fifth sets were tied at either 12–12 or 11–11. During these two heart-stopping matches, Cardiologists were handing out business cards to the fans at Savage Arena as the fifth sets progressed. In the first match, the Bulls committed way to many errors in dropping the first two sets, during which UB never held a lead. Buffalo had more kills than Toledo, 34 to 22, but Buffalo gave the two sets away with a combined 18 attack errors, 8 service errors and two blocking errors. Buffalo managed to cut way back on the errors and won sets three and four, 25–22 and 27–25. The Bulls fell behind Toledo 5–1 early in the fifth set, but went on a 6–2 run to tie the set at 7. Things remained close at 12–12, but then two Toledo errors put Buffalo ahead at 14–12. Two Toledo kills tied the set at 14, another Toledo error gave Buffalo a third match point, and then freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin scored a kill of the Toledo block to give Buffalo a 16–14 win. In the second match, Buffalo kept their errors down, but the offense never really got moving, and Buffalo lost the first two sets. Buffalo's defense stiffened in the third set and the Bulls won 25–21. The fourth set was Buffalo's best of the two matches, as they hit 0.407 and won the set 25–15, with Buffalo using a lot of bench players to give the starters some rest. In the fifth set, Toledo ran out to a 4–1 lead, but eventually the set was tied at 7. Buffalo moved ahead 11–8 only to see Toledo move back into the lead at 12–11, when the Bulls committed four straight errors. One was a service error, and the next three were simply balls hit out of bounds by UB. Fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara then tied the set at 12 with a quick attack out of the middle. Two more Toledo points gave them match point at 14–12. Buffalo's senior right side Stacia Gollogly scored a cross court kill, and then Toledo's Taylor Alt put the match away with a kill off the dig. Buffalo is now 16–4 for the season, and their 6–2 MAC record has them tied for third place in the MAC with Toledo. Buffalo's leading scorer in both matches was senior Katrin Trebichavská, with 21 kills in the first match and 17 in the second match. In the first match, Trebichavská picked up the rare 20–20 performance, adding in 20 digs, the team high. Trebichavská also had 5 aces in the second match, including three consecutive in the fourth set. Senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská Toledo's Alt was a big thorn in the Bulls' side in both matches, picking up 20 kills or more in each match. In the first match, Forlin had 16 kills, her career high (her previous high was 11), and she added 2 aces. Okwara had 13 kills and 4 blocks, and fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh had 9 kills, 4 aces and two blocks. Junior setter Mandy Leigh had 57 assists, while junior libero Maria Futey had 16 digs and senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez had 15 digs. In the second match, Abby Leigh had 13 kills and just two errors, plus four blocks. Gollogly, who did not start had six kills on zero errors, plus three blocks. Mandy Leigh had 4 blocks, 12 digs and 45 assists, plus 4 kills with zero errors. Freshman middle blocker Tehya Shaw, who replaced Okwara in the 3rd set, had 3 blocks, her career high in brief playing time this year. Futey had 18 digs and Lopez had 12 digs. Buffalo will host Akron at Alumni Arena on Tuesday, October 17 at 6pm (ESPN+). Other Stuff Okwara came into the weekend leading the NCAA in hitting percentage at 0.520. But its really hard to keep up that pace, and Okwara hit just 0.233 in the two matches combined, and her hitting percentage for the season dropped to 0.474, still an outstanding number, and still first in the MAC by a wide margin. Trebichavská's 45 aces leads the MAC, and she is third in the MAC in points per set. Abby Leigh leads the MAC in blocks per set, and solo blocks. Buffalo entered the weekend with an RPI of 77, one of their best ever. NCAA Volleyball news: Evansville and UIC played longest match ever in terms of elapsed time, 3 hours and 45 minutes. The fifth set ended 36–34 in favor of Evansville.

The UB Volleyball team picked up two more wins, with a very hard-fought five set win against Central Michigan, and then a sweep over Eastern Michigan. Buffalo is now 15–3, and 5–1 in the MAC. They entered the weekend with an RPI of 66, very likely the best in program history. Against the Chippewas, both Buffalo and CMU struggled to open a lead and then maintain it; the lead jumped back and forth as each team gave it their all. Buffalo had a four point lead at 8–4 in the first set, and never had a four point lead again until 14–10 of the fifth set. CMU once had a six point lead early in the fourth set at 9–3, but after Buffalo wiped out that lead to tie the set at 11; and other than that CMU could not manage a lead bigger than four points. In the first set, after CMU took a 14–12 lead, Buffalo managed to keep close to CMU, but never got closer than 2 points, CMU winning 25–22. The second set look like a replay of the first set, with the Chippewas taking a 21–18 lead. Then Buffalo made one of its few extended runs of the match, as senior defensive specialist Juliana Lopez served two aces and senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská had three kills, and Buffalo led 23–18. Still, CMU fought back to tie the score at 23, but then Buffalo's fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh ended the set with a kill and then a solo block. The third set was the closest set of the match, with no team ever picking up a lead bigger than three points, but Buffalo prevailed 25–22. The fourth set was more of the same, Buffalo leading 21–20 with many lead changes, but CMU scored the last five points. The fifth set began as the first four sets had gone, and was tied at 9. Buffalo then went on a 5–1 run to take a 14–10, using two kills by Abby Leigh and one from freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin. After a CMU point, Forlin's attack off the block gave Buffalo a 15–11 win. This match belonged to Trebichavská, who had a career high 27 kills, plus 4 aces, to pick up 31 points, also a career high. In particular, Trebichavská did a great job of scoring on back row attacks, as EMU was unable to slow her down. But she had a lot of help — fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara had 13 kills and just one error, plus two blocks. Okwara had entered the weekend second in the NCAA and first in the MAC in hitting percentage. Abby Leigh, second in the nation in solo blocks at the start of the weekend, had 5 more solo blocks, and 3 block assists. Junior setter Mandy Leigh had 57 assists. Junior libero Maria Futey had 17 digs, but the star of the back row once again was Lopez who led the team with 18 digs and absolutely rock solid defense, and added 3 aces. Lopez is quietly having an outstanding season both serving and digging. Senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská attacks from the back row Senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez Against Eastern Michigan, Buffalo ran away from EMU in the first set, when with Buffalo leading 9–7, they went on a 6–1 run and cruised to a 25–17 win. The Bulls looked like they would take the second set, with an 18–10 lead, but the EMUs made it close, getting to within 2 points at 23–21 and then closed to 1 at 24–23. After a Buffalo timeout, Trebichavská's kill ended the set. The third set was an absolute blowout with the Bulls winning 25–9; Buffalo hit nearly 0.400 while EMU hit 0.000. Trebichavská again led the Bulls in kills with 12, and she also had 2 aces and one block. Okwara, who made one error against CMU, surpassed that against EMU with 10 kills and zero errors, and her season hitting percentage is now up to 0.520. Grad student outside hitter Maurine Calande led the team with 10 digs, while Lopez had 8. Mandy Leigh had 34 assists. Set from Mandy Leigh to Courtney Okwara Other Stuff Buffalo next plays at Toledo on October 13 at 6pm and October 14 at 4pm, both matches on ESPN+. Calande had five kills against EMU, including two back row kills despite a triple block. Trebichavská's 27 kills was the most by a UB player since Andrea Mitrovic set the school record with 34 kills at Kent State in 2018. Mitrovic also had an ace and four block points, for a total of 39 points, also a school record. (By the way, if you look in the UB media guide, for most kills in a match, Mitrovic's 34 is listed, but for most points, the record listed is 29 which doesn't seem right). For the two matches, Okwara had 23 kills, one error and 31 attacks, for a hitting percentage of (gasp!) 0.710. For the two matches, Lopez had 6 aces and 26 digs. They call that play a "mango". Okay, no one calls it that, but I made up the term last week for a two-handed push from the front row to the opponent's right back corner where there is no defender for a kill, after Abby Leigh did it last week. It is similar to a "pineapple", which is a real name for a real play when the setter pushes the ball deep to the opponent's left back corner. This week, another mango at Alumni Arena, when EMU setter Olivia Szylar pulled off the unusual play. Thursday was an unusually warm day in Buffalo, and it was quite warm inside Alumni Arena against CMU. The Buffalo coaching staff all wore long sleeves, with two of the coaches actually wearing sweaters. I get overheated just thinking about it. But Alumni Arena had cooled off nicely for the EMU, as it was a cooler day in Buffalo and the UB coaching staff adjusted by wearing short sleeves. And I don't know what this is, but the UB bench sure has a lot of fun during the matches. I think it might be senior defensive specialist Emilie Davis (wearing #6) doing the limbo, as Abby Leigh tries to serve.

Buffalo #66 in RPI, which I would think is the highest in program history. (But I don't know how to confirm that...)

Former Bull Andrea Mitrovic signs with the Polish club team in the city of Łódź, usually one of the top teams in the Polish league, and a team which has also qualified for the 2024 European Women's Club Championship (also known as the CEV Women's Champions League). Łódź is located in central Poland and is pronounced "voosh" (I think). Previously, Mitrovic had played in Turkey, and also plays for Team Canada.

The UB Volleyball team was swept by the Ohio Bobcats on Friday night, then came back to take a 3–1 victory over the Bobcats on Saturday night. Buffalo is now 13–3 on the season and 3–1 in the MAC. In the Friday night game, Buffalo led 12–11 in the first set, but Ohio went on a 6–0 run, including three aces by Ohio libero Sam Steele. But Buffalo eventually tied the set at 21, only to see Ohio outscore the Bulls the rest of the way 4–2. In the second set the Bulls fell behind 7–1, and Ohio would eventually win 25–18, as the Bulls committed 8 errors in the set and hit just 0.091, compared to Ohio's 0.344. Buffalo had a chance to win the 3rd set, taking a 22–17 lead, only to see Ohio cut the lead to 1 after a Buffalo service error and three straight kills by Ohio outside hitter Caroline Clippard. Still Buffalo took a 24–23 lead, only to see Ohio outscore Buffalo 4–1 the rest of the way. The overall difference in the second set, and probably the whole match, was that Ohio served and passed better than Buffalo did. In addition, Buffalo was unable to stop Ohio's outside hitter Anna Kharchynska, a second team All-MAC performer a year ago, who finished with 17 kills. Ohio's other outside hitter Kam Hunt had nine kills and no errors. But Buffalo did manage to stop Ohio's 6–4 middle blocker Caitlin O'Farrell, first team All-MAC last year, and who has been Ohio's leading scorer so far this year, averaging over 4 points per set. On this night, O'Farrell had only 5 points all match. The Bulls were led by senior right side Emma Gielas who had 13.5 points on 12 kills and 2 blocks. Senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská had 13 points on 12 kills and 1 ace. Fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh had 10 with 5 kills, 5 blocks and one ace. Leigh had 3 solo blocks, entering the match as the MAC leader in solo blocks by a wide margin. Junior setter Mandy Leigh (first team All-MAC last year) had 38 assists. Junior libero Maria Futey had 13 digs. Play of the Match™: With Ohio leading 20–12 in set two, Buffalo senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez served up a double stack of pancakes in a long rally which Buffalo eventually won. Ohio setter Tria McLean tried a left handed attack and Lopez dove and got her right hand under it, the ball ricocheted off Futey and Buffalo pushed it over the net. McLean tried the same attack, again Lopez dove and got her right hand under it, again the ball ricocheted off Futey and Buffalo send it over the net. Eventually, Abby Leigh sent the ball into the Ohio right back corner for a kill, and Buffalo fans waved their spatulas in the air! For those of you who might not know, when you get your hand under a ball and keep it off the floor that way, it's called a pancake. In the Saturday night match, Buffalo took the first set 28–26 in which both teams hit exactly 0.375. But Ohio ran away in the second set taking the set 25–18, as Buffalo hit 0.211 while the Bobcats hit 0.395. It appeared that Ohio was certainly making an effort to get O'Farrell more involved in the offense, and after two sets, O'Farrell led all scorers with 11 kills, with just 1 error, and two blocks. She looked very much like an All-MAC Player. In sets 3 and 4, Buffalo changed their serving taking Ohio out of its offense. Buffalo's blocking went berserk, and Buffalo's attacking was some of their best all season, and sets 3 and 4 looked like a highlight reel for the Bulls, as they won 25–15 and 25–14. Buffalo switched their serving to include a large number of short serves and Ohio did not handle the short serves well. Short serves forces different players to return serve, or return serve from a less advantageous position; and often it takes the middle blocker out of the offense. (Some people, including me at times, think that serving is all aces and errors, but good serving shuts down the opponent's offense). Ohio, which hit a combined 0.385 in the first two sets, finished one kill above 0.000 in the last two sets. O'Farrell had only 4 kills in the last two sets, and picked up 5 errors, mostly on UB blocks. Ohio even switched O'Farrell to attack on the left or on the right, instead of the usual middle blocker positions, to no avail. As Buffalo continued to send short serves over the net, they ran up huge leads, and the only suspense on match point would be if Trebichavská would short serve or jump serve. Trebichavská sent a laser jump serve over (her first jump serve of the last two sets), and the Ohio defender was apparently not ready for the high velocity jump serve and shanked the pass into the fourth row of the stands. As Ohio struggled to get their offense going, UB's block came alive and took advantage. After just 3 Buffalo blocks in the first two sets, Buffalo had 13 blocks in the final two sets. To put 13 blocks in two sets into perspective, Buffalo's previous high this year for a whole match was 10, and in the previous two seasons, Buffalo only once had more than 13 blocks in a whole match, that in 2021 against Troy when middle blocker Olivia DeBortoli had 9 blocks and the team had 17 blocks. Buffalo also had 11 solo blocks — the records on the UB web site go back to 2010, and in that time, Buffalo has never had 11 solo blocks. Buffalo managed to hit 0.377 over the last two sets, making just 5 errors. The Bulls finished hitting 0.328 against Ohio's 0.223. Mandy Leigh had 40 assists, with very accurate setting most of the match and especially in sets 3 and 4; and she had a .571 hitting percentage. Abby Leigh had 16 points, coming on 9 kills (with just 2 errors) and her season high 9 blocks, five of them solo. Her 5 solo blocks is also a season high. A year ago, Abby Leigh led the MAC with 32 solo blocks, she is up to 25 solo blocks already this year, and leads the MAC by 15 solo blocks over second place. Trebichavská had 17 points on 15 kills, 2 blocks and 1 ace. Freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin had 13 points, on 11 kills (with just 2 errors) and 2 solo blocks, the 11 kills ties her career high. Fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara had 12.5 points with 8 kills, 1 error, and 5 blocks (4 solo). Futey had 13 digs and Lopez had 10. The Play of the Match™ belongs to Abby Leigh, a microcosm of the team's strong serving and blocking. At 22–13 in the third set, a tough serve by Futey was passed poorly. Ohio's McLean bumped the ball toward O'Farrell, whose attack was stuffed by perfect timing and position by Abby Leigh. But as I said, the last two sets were a highlight reel, it was tough to choose, and on the previous play, Trebichavská put on her anti-gravity boots, hung in the air, and then pushed a tip from O'Farrell down to the floor for a kill. Mandy Leigh (L) and Abby Leigh Other Stuff Buffalo will next play Central Michigan at Alumni Arena, Thursday, October 5 at 6pm and against Eastern Michigan on Friday, October 6 at 6pm. Both matches are on ESPN+. CMU is 1–4 in the MAC and 7–9 overall. EMU is 2–14 and 0–4 in the MAC. Attendance Friday night was 764, and on Saturday it was 578. Strong attendance for both games. I can't find recent attendance compilations on the UB web site, but I don't think UB has had a lot of 764 or greater attendances in the last few years. We have talked about Mandy Leigh making a play called a pineapple, a push by the setter toward the opponent's back left corner when no defender is there. Tonight, Abby Leigh had a two handed push towards the opponent's empty back right corner which landed for a kill. I am not aware of a name for this particular kill, so I am going to give it a name and give Abby Leigh credit for a mango. Buffalo coach Scott Smith and Mandy Leigh were interviewed after the match live by the ESPN+ announcing crew, the audio broadcast throughout Alumni Arena for the fans to hear. As far as I remember, this is the first time this has happened for volleyball. It happened regularly for basketball for the last few years. Interview: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cx1W-FAsjuc/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Friday night's ESPN+ color announcer was Kristin Carpenter Steadman, a former Penn State player. In 2010, Carpenter's sophomore year, Penn State found themselves without a setter, and Carpenter won the job despite the fact she had never been a setter before. All Carpenter did was set Penn State to a national championship that year. She would not be used at setter again in the rest of her career. Saturday night's play-by-play announcer was Jack Kreuzer, who also announces UB Women's Soccer on the Buffalo Bulls Broadcast Network, and he is the UB women's basketball radio announcer. In 2011, I attended my first major conference volleyball match at Ohio State. They were playing #1 Nebraska that night. Ohio State was coached by Geoff Carlston, who is now the Ohio University coach. That night, Ohio State short served Nebraska in the 2nd set, and won that set. That night, Nebraska figured out how to handle the short serve, neutralizing the short serve and won 3–1; Carlston's Ohio University team tonight never figured it out.

Big matches against Ohio at Alumni Arena, 6pm Friday Sept 29 and 4 pm Sat Sept 30, ESPN+. Ohio finished last year as the MAC #3 seed, Buffalo was the #6 seed, and Buffalo split two five set matches with Ohio last year, but then in the MAC quarterfinals, Buffalo won 3-1. Ohio picked 2nd in the MAC East in this year's coaches poll, Buffalo was 3rd. This year, Ohio has beaten some top 100 teams (according to Ken Massey) and had a bizarre loss to Akron who is ranked 227; and so Ohio right now (according to Massey) is ranked 127, while Buffalo is at 91. Ohio returns 3 All-MAC players, 6-4 middle blocker Caitlin O'Farrell, outside hitter Carline Clippard and right side Anna Kharchynska. Buffalo has only one all-MAC player, setter Mandy Leigh. Buffalo has beaten two top 100 teams (Missouri and St. John's, plus Colgate which was an exhibition match)

The UB volleyball team followed Friday night's 3–0 victory over Kent State with a 3–2 victory over Kent State on Saturday night, making the team's record 12–2 for the season, and 2–0 in the MAC. In both games, Buffalo's starting outside hitters were benched after struggling in the early going. Friday night, senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská and senior outside hitter Stacia Gollogly were replaced in the second set by freshman Manoela Forlin and sophomore Lauren Otten. Those two replacements played well enough on Friday night to earn the start of Saturday, but after they struggled on Saturday, Trebichavská and Gollogly came back in. Gollogly continued to struggle and Forlin came back in, while Trebichavská was able to put up big numbers off the bench. If the Bulls are going to have a good chance of making the MAC Tournament and going far into the post-season this year, they need to find somewhat consistent play from both outside hitter positions. Buffalo was led by fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh, who picked up her season high 22 points, with 15 kills, 7 blocks and 3 aces, while committing just 2 errors, a 0.500 hitting percentage. Leigh also had 3 digs, all on one rally! Leigh's career high is 26 points, set last year at Lehigh. Fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh After a strong first set which Buffalo won 25–19, the Bulls fell behind 23–19 in the second set. Although the Bulls would close the set to one point at 24–23, a service error by senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez ended the set in Kent's favor. In the second set, Buffalo's offense sizzled along hitting 0.357, but Kent State shredded Buffalo's defense, hitting 0.400. The Bulls fell behind 19–12 in the third set and never got close. Facing a 2–1 deficit, Buffalo pulled everything together in the fourth set, opening a 21–13 lead and finishing with a 25–17 win. Buffalo head coach Scott Smith made one other lineup change for the fourth set, taking Lopez out and replacing her with senior defensive specialist Hayley Montoya. Lopez had a stellar performance on Friday night, but was much less effective in this match. Perhaps Smith wanted to take advantage of the energy Montoya brings. This change also meant that senior right side Emma Gielas would serve regularly (she had not served with Lopez in the lineup and serving in rotation 4) and Gielas had two strong serving runs in the fourth set, picking up two aces along the way. Buffalo opened a 6–3 lead in the fifth set, then pushed the lead to 10–6, and finished on a 5–1 run, with Gielas getting the kills on the final two plays. Trebichavská picked up 12.5 points, second on the team behind Abby Leigh, and made only 2 attack errors. Gielas had 12 points. Junior setter Mandy Leigh had 46 assists, her season high, helping UB hit 0.278 for the match. Mandy Leigh also had 14 digs. Junior libero Maria Futey had 19 digs. Other Stuff Buffalo faces Ohio at Alumni Arena twice next weekend, on Friday September 29 at 6pm, and the next day at 4pm. Both matches are on ESPN+. Ohio was picked ahead of Buffalo in the coaches pre-season poll. Ohio is 1–1 in the MAC this year, splitting two matches with Akron. Ohio also was the #3 seed in the MAC tournament last year, but they lost to Buffalo 3–1 in the MAC quarter-finals. Earlier in the season, Buffalo lost in five sets to Xavier. Xavier defeated #11 Creighton in five sets on Saturday. Buffalo leads the MAC in hitting percentage at 0.270 and the also leads the MAC in lowest opponent's hitting percentage, 0.167. Fifth year middle-blocker Courtney Okwara leads the MAC in hitting percentage at 0.506 while Abby Leigh is second at 0.415. Trebichavská leads the MAC in aces per set at 0.67.

The UB Volleyball team opened MAC Play with a 3–0 win over Kent State Friday night. Buffalo moves to 11–2 on the season. It was head coach Scott Smith's 60th career win, just the fourth coach in UB history to record that many. The most memorable performances of the night belonged to senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez and junior libero Maria Futey. Lopez picked up four aces in the fourth quarter to tie her career high in aces and points. But all match long, Lopez served well causing Kent problems, and she played solid defense, usually making perfect passes to UB's junior setter Mandy Leigh, enabling Leigh to run the offense. Lopez previously had 4 aces in a match (all consecutive!) against Youngstown State in 2022. Lopez finished with 8 digs. Futey made some really outstanding digs, especially late in the second set when Buffalo made a comeback (more on that in a minute), and passed well the entire match, again helping Mandy Leigh run the offense. Futey finished with a team high 14 digs, a big number in a three set match. Senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez serving Buffalo took the first set 25–20 after opening a 17–11 lead on back to back aces by senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská. While Kent State eventually closed the lead to 22–20, Buffalo would finish the set with a 3-0 run. Nevertheless, Buffalo's offense struggled in that set, hitting just 0.111 with nine attack errors. Because Buffalo's outside hitters struggled, Smith went to his bench and eventually wound up using all five of his outside hitters during the match, eventually settling on sophomore Lauren Otten and freshman Manoela Forlin to play most of the second set and all of the third set. And although Otten and Forlin didn't put up huge numbers (3 kills each), they made zero errors each, while Buffalo's starters at outside hitter, Trebichavská and senior Stacia Gollogly each had 3 errors. But the impact of Otten and Forlin was not really felt until the end of the second set. Buffalo had fallen behind 23–18 in the second set, thanks to Kent's outside hitter Mackenzie McGuire, who had 10 kills in just the second set. But with Buffalo looking at an impending defeat, the Bulls managed to #ShakeItOff (it was Taylor Swift night at the MAC Center — can you believe that song is now 9 years old? But I digress...) and Buffalo went on an 8–1 run to take the set. A cross-court kill by senior right side Emma Gielas started the Bull's comeback. Lopez stepped to the service line and made two strong serves, both resulting in poor passes by Kent, and Buffalo picked up two more points (after a nice diving dig by Lopez to extend the rally, Buffalo scored on block by senior middle blocker Abby Leigh and her sister Mandy; and then an attack error by Kent after Lopez's tough serve). The pass on Lopez's next serve went backwards, leading to a free ball by Kent and a kill by Abby Leigh. On the next rally, McGuire pushed the ball through the Leigh's attempted double block to give Kent State set point, 24–22. Forlin's first kill made it 24–23. Then Forlin's tough serve was passed poorly, McGuire took a hard shot saved by a great diving dig by Futey followed by a kill from Otten (her first as well), and the set was tied. A stuff block by Abby Leigh put the Bulls ahead and after a long rally, another shot by McGuire was followed by another diving dig from Futey and a kill from Otten. Buffalo took a 4–0 lead in the third set (using strong serving from grad student outside hitter Maurine Calande) and said to Kent State #WeAreNeverEverGettingBackTogether, pushing the lead to 11–2 after a 4 point serving run from Lopez (including two aces). Buffalo increased the lead to 24–12 on back-to-back aces from Lopez. The final score in the third set was 25–14. Buffalo was led by Gielas, Abby Leigh and Okwara with 9 points each. Okwara, currently leading the MAC in hitting percentage and top 5 nationally, had 7 kills on 12 swings with no errors, so that hitting percentage will go up. Okwara led the Bulls with 3 blocks. Mandy Leigh had 29 assists and 10 digs. Buffalo plays Kent State again today (September 23, 2023) at 4pm on ESPN+. Other Stuff According to UBBulls.com, the other UB volleyball coaches to have 60 wins are Peter Weinrich (1975-80, 107-121-4), Robert Maxwell (1981-98, 409-285-8), and Todd Kress (2009-13, 73-81). Weinrich was the coach when I was a student at UB, and I remember him fondly as he was always very nice to me. Weinrich would go on to be a highly regarded volleyball referee in the Buffalo area. Buffalo serving numbers for the match: 9 aces with just 6 errors. Abby Leigh had back-to-back aces in the second set, and Forlin added one in the third set. Buffalo hit 0.273 in the second set and 0.391 in the third, so that's 0.243 for the entire match. This was only the third match Otten has played in. Calande played outside hitter briefly in the first set; she played mostly at defensive specialist.

thanks for mentioning the upcoming home game on Sunday. I have not been to a home game yet this year. See you there!

Buffalo at Kent State this weekend. Kent is 4-7, losing to Niagara 3-0 and beating Canisius 3-2. No common opponent this year, but they did beat Cleveland State 3-2 this year, whom Buffalo defeated twice last year (3-0 and 3-1) and in spring volleyball.

I think BG/Michigan scheduled back-to-back home and away matches on consecutive days. I had not previously seen teams do this.

Courtney Okwara named MAC East Offensive Player of the Week. Around the MAC: Bowling Green defeats Big Ten opponent Michigan twice!

Buffalo Volleyball comes to the end of their non-Conference schedule with a record of 10–2, after defeating Columbia and St. John's and losing to #16 Arkansas in the St. John's Tournament. So how does this 10–2 record compare to a year ago? In 2022, Buffalo finished 8–4 in non-Conference play and the Bulls went on to tie the program record for most MAC wins, reached the MAC Semi-Finals for the first time ever, and advanced to a post-season tournament for the first time ever. This year's team, with mostly the same starting lineup as last year's team, not only has a better non-Conference record, but also a stronger strength of schedule. A year ago, the Buffalo strength of schedule was in the low 200s, while this year it is around 150. So, stronger schedule this year, and better W-L record. All good signs, coming after the team's best year ever in the MAC in 2022. Buffalo was simply out-played by the nationally ranked Razorbacks. The Bulls struggled at returning serve, Arkansas having some very strong servers; and Buffalo did not serve well either. The Bulls wound up hitting just 0.143 (their lowest hitting percentage of the season) while Arkansas hit 0.396, and Buffalo did not score 20 points in any set. Against Columbia, it was the Bulls who out-played the Lions, as Buffalo did not allow Columbia to score 20 points in any set. In fact, Columbia could manage only 9 points in the 2nd set and just 12 points in the 3rd set. The Bulls were so dominant that head coach Scott Smith emptied his bench, every single player on the roster appearing the match. In the first set against St. John's, Buffalo started out strong, with three blocks in the first 9 rallies, but the block disappeared the rest of the set. In fact, not only did it disappear, but it resulted in many points for the Red Storm, as time after time their attacks went off the Buffalo blocker's hands and out of bounds. Add in occasional poor passing by Buffalo, and the first set belonged to St. John's 25–21. The Bulls managed to tighten things up in the second set, reversing the score and tying the match at 1–1. Trailing 13–11, the Bulls put on a display of very strong serving, and they went on a 9–3 run to take a lead they would never relinquish. In that run, Buffalo got strong serving by grad student Maurine Calande and junior libero Maria Futey, each picking up an ace and forcing St. John's to take out-of-system attacks. Earlier in the set, with Buffalo trailing 10–7, they pulled even on a kill and then back-to-back aces by senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská. In the third set, Buffalo again put pressure on St. Johns, this time with 5 blocks, four of them where fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara was involved. The Bulls also picked up four aces in the set, one by fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh, two by senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez and one by junior setter Mandy Leigh. With the Bulls leading 16–15, Buffalo went on a 6–1 run to put the set out of reach, that run including two kills by senior outside hitter Stacia Gollogly and two blocks by Okwara. In the fourth set, at 11–11, Buffalo ran away scoring the next 8 points, opening up a 19–11 lead (with leading scorer Trebichavská on the bench, replaced by freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin). Mandy Leigh did a lot of damage from the service line, picking up an ace, and also did a lot of damage with her setting, leading to three kills by senior right-side Emma Gielas in that run. For the Bulls, it was their best set on offense hitting 0.409 while holding St. John's to their lowest hitting percentage, 0.143. For the match, Trebichavská led the team with 15.5 (11 kills, 3 aces and 2 blocks), Gielas was next with 13 points (11 kills, 4 blocks) followed by Okwara with 12 points (9 kills, 6 blocks) and Abby Leigh with 12 points (6 kills, 4 aces and 3 blocks). Mandy Leigh had 38 asissts. Futey had 13 digs. Plays (plural) of the Match™: not one play, but a great performance across the entire match by Gollogly, who let loose a barrage of out-of-system kills (6 by my count on 7 out of system swings). Out of system attacks are usually low percentage shots, but not on this night for Gollogly. The FloSports announcer Paige Band (great first name, don't you think?) interviewed Smith, and she quoted Smith as saying Gollogly in the past has not had a lot of confidence on out of system attacks, that was something they were working on. And you can understand that lack of confidence in some sense, as she has been the "Stacia-of-all-trades" playing all three front row positions in her 4 years at UB, and not playing a lot of time at any one position. Must be Smith and Gollogly are working on it effectively. Gollogly finished with a season high 9 kills of all types, not just out of system, and hit 0.333. Senior outside hitter Stacia Gollogly. Photo credit: Mark DeBortoli Other Stuff Futey and Okwara made the all-tournament team. Since Gollogly usually does not play back row, Smith made a lineup tweak and put Calande (normally an outside hitter) into the lineup to play just back row. Across the entire tournament, Okwara had 17 kills and just 2 errors, on 31 attacks. She entered the weekend fifth in the NCAA and leading the MAC in hitting percentage. At the end of the weekend, Okwara now hitting 0.514 on the season. Her 0.420 at the end of last season led the MAC. Buffalo opens the MAC schedule next weekend with matches at Kent State on February 22 (6 pm) and February 23 (4 pm), both streamed on ESPN+.

Can I answer that after this weekend? Then the non-conference schedule will be complete, I think that will be a good time for evaluating the team. My preseason evaluation is that this could be the best year ever for the team.

Mandy Leigh named MAC East Setter of the Week; and Katrin Trebichavská named MAC East Co-Offensive Player of the Week. For Leigh, it is the second week in a row with this honor. Looking at MAC stats (entire conference, not just MAC East), Courtney Okwara leads in hitting percentage a 0.523, and in second place ... can you guess??? We'll come back to that. Trebichavská is 7th in kills per set. Mandy Leigh is 3rd in assists per set. Trebichavská is 2nd in aces per set. Abby Leigh second in blocks per set; and way ahead in solo blocks per set. Maria Futey 10th in digs per set. Trebichavská second in points per set. So, second in hitting percentage is Abby Leigh. Meaning Buffalo has the top two attackers in terms of hitting percentage in the MAC. SET THE MIDDLES!

The UB Volleyball Team swept Missouri and Bellarmine, and also lost to Xavier in 5 sets, at the Xavier Tournament. The Bulls are now 8–1 on the season. Buffalo had only once in their program's history defeated a Power 5 opponent, a win over Rutgers 3–2 in 2017. Buffalo had never swept a Power 5 opponent, until they faced Missouri in the opening match of the tournament, winning 25–18, 25–19 and 25–18. It was a powerful performance by the Bulls, as they excelled in virtually every phase of the game: they passed well, they attacked well and they played stifling defense. The numbers bear that out. Buffalo out-hit the Tigers 0.341 to 0.094, Buffalo out-blocked the Tigers 7–1, and Buffalo picked up 36 digs to 30 for Missouri. The Bulls opened a 10–3 lead over the Tigers in the first set, and maintained the lead the entire way, hitting 0.371 to Missouri's 0.147. In the second set, Buffalo broke open a 10–10 tie and slowly pulled away. The third set saw Buffalo open a 7–2 lead, and Missouri never got close after that. The Bulls made only two attack errors in the set and hit 0.409, compared to Missouri's 0.067. The match began with a good omen for the Bulls on the very first play of the match. Senior outside hitter Stacia Gollogly, starting for the first time all season, was in serve receive formation (something she rarely does) and Missouri served the ball to her. Gollogly made a perfect pass to Buffalo setter Mandy Leigh, whose pass back to Gollogly resulted in a kill out of the front-row middle, a play designed to confuse the defense. Gollogly was successful on this play several times during the match. In the third set, Gollogly made a very smart play to stop a potential Missouri rally. A pass tight to the net and a Missouri double-block looked like it would result in a Missouri point, but Gollogly tipped the ball of the side of the Missouri blocker's forearm, and the ball went out-of-bounds for a Buffalo point. Gollogly would finish with 7 kills. Senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská led the Bulls with 14.5 points on 11 kills, two aces and two blocks. Trebichavská also gets credit for the Play of the Match™, when at 18–13 in the third set, Mandy Leigh set the ball to Trebichavská in the back row. Missouri set up a triple block in front of Trebichavská, but KT's powerful swing went over the block and down for a kill. It was the second kill of the match against a triple block for Trebichavská. Fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh was not far behind in points with 13.5, coming on 10 kills (with just 1 error) and four blocks (3 solo). Senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez had 11 digs. Mandy Leigh had 31 assists. In the second match, against Xavier, the Bulls looked like a different team. They struggled to pass well, resulting in a low hitting percentage, they made a relatively high number of errors, and generally did not look as efficient or smooth as they did against Missouri. A number of times in the match, Buffalo changed their serve receive arrangement to try to produce better passing, with inconsistent results. In the first set, Buffalo hit 0.000 and lost 25–16. Passing was the primary culprit. Buffalo passed better in set two, and took a 25–18 victory, hitting 0.324. The third set went long, 30–28, with Missouri taking the win. The Bulls trailed 15–12, but then ran off seven straight points to take a 19–15 lead, as the serving by Trebichavská produced one ace and took Missouri out of system which prevented Missouri from running their offense. Buffalo had two set point opportunities at 24–22, and another one at 26–25, but the Bulls couldn't convert and Missouri won 30-28. The fourth set against Xavier was a back-and-forth set, but with the score tied at 21, a Missouri kill gave them a brief lead. A kill from Trebichavská and two Missouri errors put the Bulls ahead 24–22 and a kill from fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara ended the set. Buffalo faded rapidly in the fifth set, falling behind 9–2, and never recovered. Missouri hit 0.588 in the set and Buffalo could only manage 0.150. Trebichavská again led the Bulls in score with 23.5 (18 kills, 4 aces, 2 blocks) and Abby Leigh was second with 13.5 points (11 kills, 1 ace and 2 blocks). Senior right side Emma Gielas, who played high school ball in the Cincinnati area, picked up 10.5 point on 9 kills and two blocks. Mandy Leigh had 45 assists. Junior libero Maria Futey had a season-high 23 digs, Mandy Leigh had 14 digs and Lopez had 11. Against Bellarmine, another Cincinnati native playing for the Bulls, sophomore outside hitter Lauren Otten, replaced Gollogly. It was Otten's first appearance of the year, and she had the best match of her career, picking up 8 kills (with just one error), plus two blocks and 2 digs. All of those statistics are career highs. Otten was injured in the exhibition match at Colgate, on the first play she was on the court, but was in uniform for all of the Bulls games so far. The Bulls defeated Bellarmine 25–15, 25–21 and 25–14, hitting 0.400 for the match, their best of the year, while making just 8 attack errors, also their best of the year. Once again it was Trebichavská who led the team in scoring with 16.5 points, including 6 aces. Abby Leigh finished with 14.5 points, including 6 blocks, and Otten was third in scoring at 9.5 points. Other Stuff Abby Leigh was the MVP of the tournament, while both Abby Leigh and Trebichavská made the all-Tournament team. In case I haven't mentioned this in a while, the two Leighs are sisters. Buffalo players who made the all-tournament team: (L to R) Abby Leigh, Katrin Trebichavská and Mandy Leigh In that 2017 victory over Rutgers, Buffalo outside hitter Polina Prokudina had 26 kills, including four in the fifth set, to give Buffalo their first ever win over a Power 5 program. Prokudina also scored several times against a triple block in that match, as Trebichavská did against Missouri. Note: Buffalo has defeated Syracuse, but that was before 'Cuse joined the ACC. In that five-set win over Syracuse in 2011, the attendance at Alumni Arena went over 1,000 for the first time ever, and after the match, the fans came down on the court with the players and line-danced to the "Wobble" song. The playing time for Gollogly and Otten in this tournament was due to the injuries to two other players who had started for Buffalo at outside hitter earlier in the season, grad student Maurine Calande and freshman Manoela Forlin. Buffalo plays next at St. John's, facing #17 Arkansas, Columbia and the host team. Only the final match against St. John's will be streamed (on FloSports).

So just to follow up, now Buffalo has beaten a top 100 team in the Massey ranking. Missouri was in the 60s and we swept them.

Even if we win all 3 matches this weekend, I don't see us getting votes for the Top 25. We haven't really beaten a top team, or even a top 100 team, according to Massey rankings. And also we face Arkansas next weekend, they are currently #17, I think we would need to beat them first before anyone serious considers Buffalo for the top 25. By the way, Massey has UB at number 94.

Buffalo plays Missouri this weekend (Friday morning, 10 am). Buffalo has only 1 win ever over a Power 5 team, that over Rutgers in 2017. And despite what the story says, we have won sets against other Power 5 teams, specifically Indiana and Northwestern. Those three opponents were perennially at the bottom of the Big Ten standings. But a win is a win. https://www.ubbullrun.com/2017/9/2/16246774/for-the-first-time-in-program-history-ub-volleyball-defeats-big-ten Buffalo and Missouri have a common opponent, Colgate. Buffalo defeated Colgate 3-2 in an exhibition match, with UB Coach Scott Smith going deep into his bench for the last 3 sets. Missouri defeated Colgate 3-2 in a regular season match, with (I assume) their regulars playing. So, could UB knock off another P5 team? It's certainly possible. #GoBulls

The UB Volleyball team moved to 6–0 on the season with a sweep of Binghamton. Buffalo also wins their own Invitational Tournament, losing only one set in the entire tournament. Their 6–0 start is their best in a decade. Buffalo and Binghamton played even early in sets 1 and 3, with both of those sets tied at 10, and then Buffalo pulled away for 25–22 wins. In set 2, Buffalo pulled away from a 5–5 tie and picked up their largest margin of victory in the match, 25–18. The Bulls fared better than Binghamton in almost all phases of the game, outhitting the Bearcats 0.271 to 0.195, out-blocking them 7–3 and out-digging them 41 to 35. The Play of the Match™ belonged to freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin. At 16–12 of the second set, Forlin had to dive to her right to make a dig inches off the floor on a hard hit ball by Binghamton. Her pass went to Buffalo junior setter Mandy Leigh, whose perfect bump set to Trebichavská resulted in a kill off the block. You can see this play at https://www.instagram.com/p/CwtURiOMHfs/ The Bulls were led by 5th year middle blocker Abby Leigh, who had 13.5 points coming on 9 kills (with just 1 attack error), four blocks (3 solo) and one ace. Leigh, as she did a year ago, leads the MAC in solo blocks, and right now she is 3rd in hitting percentage in the MAC. Senior right side Emma Gielas also had a strong match, finishing with 12 points on 11 kills (with just 2 errors) and 2 blocks. Senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská picked up 11 points on 8 kills and 3 aces. Trebichavská is second in the MAC in points per set. Mandy Leigh had 25 assists. Forlin led the team with 14 digs, and Mandy Leigh had 11. Middle blocker Abby Leigh Other Stuff At 24–18 of the second set, a Buffalo attack by Forlin was ruled out-of-bounds, even though it looked to be in-bounds by a foot. Buffalo coach Scott Smith, who had only one challenge left (his earlier challenge being unsuccessful) decided not to risk losing the challenge, given Buffalo's large lead. Its always possible — and in fact it happened earlier in the tournament — that a ball that looks clearly in or out, but the replay is still inconclusive. Freshman middle blocker Tehya Shaw played parts of sets 2 and 3, picking up a kill and two blocks. Other than that, Buffalo used the same 8 players for the entire tournament. 5th year middle blocker Courtney Okwara leads the MAC (by far) with a 0.506 hitting percentage. In second place in the MAC is Keona Salesman of Western Michigan at 0.372. Okwara was 9th in the country in hitting percentage in games played through August 31. Buffalo next plays at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Xavier Invitational. Buffalo will face Missouri on Friday, Sept 8 at 10am, followed by a match against the host team at 6:30pm that night, and the next morning Buffalo will face Bellarmine at 10am. Only the match against Xavier will be streamed (on Flosports). Okay, who knows how to pronounce "Bellarmine"? Is the last syllable pronounced like the word "mine", or is the last syllable pronounced like the first syllable of "minimum"? Mark yourself down as a Bellarmine expert if you picked the latter. Because two of the matches will not be streamed, join me for somewhat live commentary on the Bull Run Discord at https://discord.gg/f2uwEN5w, you will need to create a user ID and password, but it's free. Sign in and then switch to the "Volleyball 2023 Thread" channel. Look for some new hashtags, like #KT_KABOOM (can you guess what that one is?) and #ALSB (Abby Leigh Solo Block) and a few others that I haven't invented yet.

The UB Volleyball team defeated Montana 3–1 (25–14, 25–20, 23–25 and 25–20) on Friday night at Alumni Arena, making their record 5–0 for the season. This is the first time they have started 5–0 since 2013. They will play Binghamton on Saturday, September 2 at 3pm at Alumni Arena. The Bulls hit a season-high 0.345, as their middle blockers, Abby Leigh and Courtney Okwara both hit over 0.300 (as it seems these two always do). What changed in this match compared to previous matches was that Buffalo's pin hitters all hit 0.300 or better as well, with right side Emma Gielas hitting 0.474 (with 9 kills and zero errors), outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská hitting 0.316 with 16 kills and outside hitter Manoela Forlin hitting 0.304 with 11 kills; all of these pin hitters had by far their season high in hitting percentage. Trebichavská and Forlin both were able to generate kills on out-of-system balls, which just increases the effectiveness of the Bulls offense, as usually out-of-system balls result in weak attacks and do not result in kills. Outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská Buffalo ran away with the first set, hitting 0.440 while holding Montana to 0.160. In the second set, Buffalo fell behind 17–15, but then went on a 9–1 run to take the lead for good. That run included tough serving from libero Maria Futey and Gielas, and four points from Trebichavská, three coming on kills and one on a solo block. It also included one play where UB setter Mandy Leigh made three diving digs. The third set was a back-and-forth affair, and was tied at 19–19, but then Montana pulled away. Both teams hit 0.333 in the set; and the Bulls made several mistakes during the set where they misjudged Montana attacks and serves, and chose to let them land instead of playing the ball, and the ball landed in by a foot or more. Buffalo's defense stiffened in the fourth set, holding Montana to a 0.077 hitting percentage. The Bulls ran out to a 7–0 lead, the last point coming on an out-of-system kill by Forlin after a 30 foot bump set from Gielas. Later, a shoot set from Mandy Leigh to Okwara gave Buffalo a 12–4 lead, causing Montana to call their second and final timeout. While Montana closed the score late in the set to 22–20, Buffalo scored the next three points, two on Montana errors and then a kill off the block by Forlin to end the match. Trebichavská led the Bulls with 20 points (16 kills, two aces, a solo block and two block assists), Forlin had 15 points, and all of Buffalo's front line had double digit points. Okwara had 4 blocks, while Abby Leigh, Gielas, Trebichavská each had 3 blocks. Futey led the team with 17 digs, her season high, while Mandy Leigh had 12 and Forlin had 11. Buffalo had a season high 10 aces, with Forlin leading the way with 4. Buffalo also had only 6 service errors, their best ace-to-error performance of the season. Mandy Leigh picked up 41 assists. Other Stuff Defensive specialist Hayley Montoya picked up a kill on an overdig, so she got to join the high-hitting-percentage party, hitting 1.000 for the match. It was her first kill of the season (so a season high!) She had five kills a year ago. In 2013, when Buffalo started 12–0, their last non-conference match was against nationally ranked Ohio State, also undefeated, at Alumni Arena. Buffalo freshman Siena Wilder served an ace on the first point of the match, and Buffalo would never lead again. Buffalo failed to make the MAC tournament that year. Late in the first set, Trebichavská hit the ball so hard that the dig went backwards and up into the rafters at Alumni Arena. I don't remember seeing too many digs travel up into the rafters. Needless to say, Montana couldn't chase the ball down, kill for KT. As in the match the previous night against DePaul, Buffalo coach Scott Smith used only eight players in the match. Outside hitter Maurine Calande, a grad transfer student, had a boot on her left foot, and was unable to play.

The UB Volleyball team won their fourth consecutive match, defeating DePaul 3–0 (25–12, 28–26 and 26-24), in the first round of the Buffalo Invite. They will play Montana tomorrow night (September 1, 2023) at 6pm at Alumni Arena, and finish the next day against Binghamton at 3pm at Alumni Arena. Buffalo ran out to an 18–5 lead in the first set, hitting 0.478 so far in the match, while holding DePaul to a zero hitting percentage. The Bulls won easily. But things changed dramatically in the next two sets, and the two teams were closer than L.A. traffic the rest of the way. Neither team could open a big lead, and there were many lead changes. DePaul changed to a two setter offense, and this seemed to make quite a difference for them. At 25–25 in the second set, a serve by DePaul's Audrey Klemp twinkled the twine and rolled over the net where Buffalo couldn't play it. Buffalo then scored the next three points to take the set, one on a DePaul attack error and two by UB middle blocker Courtney Okwara (one kill and a block on set point). In the third set, the two teams were dead even at 19, when UB outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská pulled off the Play of the Match™. A tip by DePaul's Klemp looked like it would land inbounds deep in the back right corner, but Trebichavská, running full speed from the middle of the court towards the sideline, managed to get under the ball. While KT usually draws gasps and roars from the crowd for her attacking and serving, this defensive play drew a roar from the crowd. And not only did she get to the ball while running full speed off the court, she put up a perfect pass to Buffalo setter Mandy Leigh, whose set to outside hitter Manoela Forlin resulted in a kill down the line. This brought the crowd to its feet. Video of this play: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwoTaSpMJ92 Trebichavská wasn't done. After senior right side Emma Gielas scored a cross court kill to make the score 22–21 (which led to defensive specialist Hayley Montoya to do a "swimming fish" on the floor in front of the bench), on the next play Gielas had to bump the ball way high in the air cross court and from the back row to the front row, where Trebichavská then ripped off a wicked kill down the line, off the side of the block. It was a very difficult shot, since the ball was coming from behind Trebichavská. A few plays later, a kill off the block by KT gave Buffalo match point at 24–22. DePaul responded with the next two points to tie the set at 24, but then two DePaul errors ended the match, the last point coming when a tough serve by Buffalo middle blocker Abby Leigh forced DePaul into an awkward attack, which was long. Forlin led the Bulls with 11 kills and one block, while Okwara had 10 kills and 3 blocks. Gielas and Trebichavská each had 9 kills. Trebichavská led the team with 14 digs, while Mandy Leigh had 13, Forlin had 10 and libero Maria Futey had 9. Buffalo only had 5 blocks all match, with Okwara leading the way with 3. Mandy Leigh had 35 assists. Buffalo's hitting percentage of 0.258 was their highest of the season, while they held DePaul to a 0.133 hitting percentage. Other Stuff What was that mysterious yellow card at the start of the second set? It was a delay of game penalty for DePaul, who either didn't submit their lineup by the specified time, or were late coming out onto the court. Outside hitter Maurine Calande was not available to play because of an injury. They call that shot a "pineapple". Yes, its a sweet and tasty play that Mandy Leigh pulled off to tie the score at 3 in the second set. When she noticed that there was no DePaul defender in their left back position, she pushed the ball with both hands deep into that corner for a kill. She also pulled off one of her special behind-the-head no-look dump to DePaul's left front position when there was no defender there, also in the second set, to give the Bulls a 16-15 lead. Buffalo coach Scott Smith challenged the referee's call that a Buffalo attack landed out (the challenge was that the block touched the ball) on the fifth play of the match, and the call was reversed. Since you only get two challenges in a match, but you get to keep them if the call is reversed, it was a gutsy call, you could be left with just one challenge for the rest of the match. There are some coaches who won't use a challenge that early in the match, especially since a block touch is usually hard to see on replays. There are other coaches who use the challenge whenever they feel it is warranted as long as they have challenges left Many of you have been asking: why does defensive specialist Hayley Montoya step on the sideline just before every play? Its a pattern she uses to try to get herself ready the same way for every play. Must be working, she picked up 6 digs. Can you say "consistent"? Buffalo's hitting percentage in their four games are 0.247, 0.240, 0.250 and 0.258. None of Buffalo's opponents have hit 0.200 this year. The last time Buffalo won their first 4 matches was 2018, when they went on to record what was the program's best ever record in the MAC at that time. You can tell tomorrow night's opponent Montana will be tough, as they have a player named Paige on their roster. Lastly, a quick word about the wider world of NCAA Volleyball and women's athletics in general. Last night, a crowd of 92,003 (yes, that's 92 thousand and three) watched Nebraska volleyball defeat Omaha at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln (a football stadium). This was the highest attendance ever recorded for a women's sporting event anywhere in the world.

The UB Volleyball team went undefeated in the UAB Tournament to open their season. They defeated Austin Peay 3–0, then Buffalo defeated UAB 3–2 and finally they took down Florida A&M 3–1. Along the way, junior setter Mandy Leigh moved from 9th place up to 7th place on UB's career assist list. Junior setter Mandy Leigh Throughout the tournament, there were times when the UB offense struggled, while at other times the UB offense sizzled, and UB was able to open up big leads. Buffalo coach Scott Smith made numerous lineup changes throughout the tournament to address this issue, sometimes successfully, other times not so successful. But overall, Buffalo hit 0.245 in the tournament, which is a pretty good hitting percentage. And Buffalo held their opponents to a combined 0.137 hitting percentage. Against Austin Peay, the Bulls opened a six point lead in the first set, only to see Austin Peay come back to tie the score at 22. But errors by Austin Peay gave Buffalo the set. In the second set, Buffalo ran out to an 18–4 lead, and won easily. The final set saw Buffalo take a 5-0 lead, then they pushed the lead to 10 before eventually winning 25–19. Buffalo had defeated UAB a season ago at Alumni Arena, but this was a UAB team that had 9 new players, and the Blazers took sets 1 and 3 to lead the match, while Buffalo's offense could not get going consistently. Buffalo took the fourth set 25–19, hit 0.333 (UB's best in the tournament so far) thanks to a successful lineup change by Smith; and then sticking with that new successful lineup in set 5, Buffalo hit 0.444 and won 15–10. That successful lineup change was to put freshman Manoela Forlin at right side to replace Emma Gielas, who had struggled in the first three sets. Smith also re-inserted senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská back onto the court (after she had struggled earlier), and Trebichavská came through with a strong performance in sets 4 and 5 (six kills across the two sets). Against Florida A&M, Buffalo took the first set 25–20, then lost the next set 25–20. In the third set, the Bulls led 24–20, only to see the Lady Rattlers score the next 3 points. After a Buffalo time out, a kill by Trebichavská ended the set. And then UB ran away with the fourth and final set 25–13. Across the three matches, Trebichavská was the Bulls leading scorer, followed closely by fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh. Leigh was also by far the team's leading blocker, with 13 blocks, include 6 solo blocks. (Leigh led the MAC a year ago with 32 solo blocks). Grad student outside hitter Maurine Calande finished 4th on the team in scoring, despite not playing against Florida A&M. Calande picked up 15 kills, the team high, against UAB. Mandy Leigh had 104 assists in the tournament, an average of 8.7 per set. Leigh also led the team in digs. Junior libero Maria Futey was second in digs. Other Stuff Buffalo next plays at Alumni Arena, against DePaul, Montana and Binghamton. All games will be streamed on YouTube. Unlike tournaments held at UB and elsewhere in the past, this tournament will be a little different, with each team playing one match a day, Thursday August 31 through Saturday September 2. Previous tournaments had a day on which a team would have to play twice, as it was at UAB this weekend. Freshman middle blocker Tehya Shaw, freshman setter Liv Gravatt and freshman defensive specialist Chloe Brown all made their regular season debut this weekend. Sophomore outside hitter Lauren Otten did not play; she was injured a week ago in an exhibition match at Colgate, but was in uniform at UAB.