dj_paige

Ogden has hit 2 out of her last 3 shots from behind the arc. And as I understand things, that is her strength (although the entire season numbers don't show it). Recall that Georgia Woolley was terrible from 3 point land for the first month or so of her season last year. I also love the somewhat old-fashioned first name Hattie. I wonder if her real first name is Henrietta, but her bio doesn't say.

Kayla Salmons is shooting 10-for-11 in her last 3 games, and 68% for the entire season. Why doesn't she get the ball more? Why doesn't she get more minutes of playing time? That 68% would be leading the MAC if she had enough FG attempts (second place would be Nyla Hampton at 57%) Why wasn't she in on defense on the last play both in the Kent State game (where a Kent player scored on a out-of-control shot from about 5 feet away from the basket) and why wasn't she in on defense for the last play against Ohio when an Ohio player had 4 shots (3 on offensive rebounds) underneath the basket?

And that one loss in the last 7 was to a team that has a very strong record (I think they were 8-3 at the time), and Buffalo lost by one point on a last second basket. The last 7 games have been impressive, if not perfect.

Why did Steele leave Xavier? Seems like Miami (OH) is a step down from Xavier.

But more for Miami

The name sounds familiar. Where do I know the name Travis Steele from?

Isaac Jack was a hockey player? A 6-11 hockey player?

Women's Basketball vs Central Michigan today at Alumni Arena, 2:30pm, ESPN+ Second game of doubleheader, women looking for their first MAC win after nearly taking down Kent State earlier this week

If it was a designed play for UB, I have never seen such a play before. It relied on a 5-7 guard getting the ball, driving into the paint and around a defender for a layup. Maybe that's the play you call for Zakiyah Winfield and almost no one else, but I remain skeptical on that point. I still think not having Salmons on the court was a mistake, especially on the last play when KSU scored.

A frustrating one-point loss by UB at Kent State last night. Buffalo was unable to stop Kent's outside shooting, in fact most of the Kent State 3 pointers were from wide open. Buffalo rarely got pressure on the outside shooters, choosing to stay inside the arc defensively, where Kent State really didn't have a lot of threats. Add in Buffalo's lack of three point shooting. It all came down to two last second plays. Buffalo had the ball with around 10 second left. HC Becky Burke chose not to put Kayla Salmons on the floor — Salmons had been effective earlier in the game getting open in the paint, shooting 3-for-3, and that would have given the Kent defense another effective shooter to have to guard. On this play, it didn't matter, Zakiyah Winfield scored a layup off of a pass (but it didn't look like a designed play and no assist was given) so Buffalo now had a 1 point lead with 4 seconds left. Kent then got the ball into the paint, and a somewhat wild running shot from about five feet in front of the basket by Clare Kelly, over one of the UB guards trying to defend, went in — Salmons presence would certainly have made that a much more difficult shot. The good news, in my opinion, is that Kent is one of the better teams in the MAC (they're non-conference record was 8–3 if that's any indication). Buffalo played them even and I think this bodes well, and UB can be competitive in the MAC.

Incoming freshman setter Liv Gravatt named Player of the Year by the Maryville (TN) Daily Times https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm2R6yePBj5/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Also, from https://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/maryville-volleyball-places-two-on-tswa-all-state-team/article_5abb65ae-8886-11ed-902c-a3e03144671e.html: "Maryville senior setter Liv Gravatt ... w[as] named to the Tennessee Sports Writers Association's Class AAA All-State volleyball team Saturday." "Gravatt was one of the best setters in the state, logging a career-high 1,157 assists (9.2 assists per set) to help Maryville reach the Class AAA state tournament for the third consecutive season. The Buffalo signee also recorded 220 digs, 99 aces, 93 kills and was named The Daily Times' Volleyball Player of the Year."

Head coach Becky Burke. Photo credit: ubbulls.com It was a rough start for the UB Women's Basketball team, but as December comes to an end, there's a lot to like and there's also pieces missing. With eleven new players and an entirely new coaching staff led by head coach Becky Burke, a period of adjustment and learning for the UB Women's Basketball team would be a reasonable expectation. But the first three games left you with a sinking feeling. A last second loss to Canisius, and narrow win over Stonehill (a former Division 2 team making its first Division 1 appearance) and another last second loss against Division 2 Mercyhurst did not inspire confidence. Follow that up with double-digit losses against Drexel (in which Buffalo only scored 35 points) and Rhode Island, and you could be forgiven if you thought the season was going to be very bad indeed. Teams should, and do, improve as the season progresses. And so it was for the UB Women's basketball team, credit to the coaches and players for their hard work and improvement. At Niagara, UB ran out to a 17 point lead before eventually winning by 5. Then, they blew out Long Island and defeated Bucknell and St. Bonaventure, a four game winning streak, and Buffalo closed the non-Conference with a winning record, 5–4. But to give a more complete picture, the losses to Drexel and Rhode Island were against teams with just one loss at the time, and the four game winning streak came against teams all with records below 0.500. So, Buffalo has, since the loss to Mercyhurst, defeated teams with worse records, and lost to teams with better records. The strength of the team is clearly their three guards, Jazmine Young, Re'Shawna Stone and Zakiyah Winfield. Each has shown the ability to get open off the dribble and score. Each plays pressure defense and can then turn defense into offense. Winfield, in particular, has shined brightly, leading the team in scoring at 15.1 per game, shooting nearly 50%, and leading the team with 11.3 rebounds per game (and to paraphrase a former UB coach, someone forgot to tell Winfield she's only 5-7). Get this: Winfield right now leads the MAC in rebounds per game. Winfield is also right now tied for 8th in the MAC in assists per game at 3.6 (tied with Stone), and eighth in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.6. Young is second on the team in scoring (12.7), while Stone is third (11.3). The team lost a major piece in the middle when 6–2 Kiara Johnson's season ended because of a torn achilles tendon, after she had scored 17 points and grabbed 8 rebounds and had 2 blocks in just 23 minutes of playing time against Long Island. The Bull's other front line players haven't come close to this in productivity, although 6–3 center Kayla Salmons has had two double-digit rebound games so far this season and is shooting 58%. 6–2 freshman Hattie Ogden has played only sparingly so far and hasn't put up big numbers. 6–0 Emerita Mashaire had her first double-digit scoring game against St. Bonaventure. Add in UB volleyball player Olivia Debortoli, who stands 6–2, and Buffalo has the front-line size to compete in the MAC, but so far no breakout game by any front line player except Johnson. The other thing missing is a more diverse offense. Most of the Bulls offense comes from the guards, dribbling into the paint and then hitting short jumpers or layups. The talent at guard is good enough so that they score in the paint often, and if they don't score the guards also find a cutting player for an easy layup. But there is no outside shooting threat, which would help the guards drive and score. There is only rarely a drive into the paint, kick the ball out to an outside shooting threat to make the easy jumper or wide open three-pointer. There are only rare moments where someone sets a screen to help the guards penetrate. There are only rare pick-and-roll plays. There are only rare moments when Salmons posts up down low to use her height to score, or to play the inside-out game. So with a four-game winning streak, the Bulls head into the MAC schedule, the question marks remain. Will the talent at guard carry the team? Will other players step up? Will the offense diversify? We shall see. #GoBulls

Hopefully a breakout game for UB. Hopefully this win, and the win over Niagara, provides confidence for the team, which had little confidence after losing 3 in a row (Mercyhurst, Drexel, Rhode Island). But of course, the quality of the opponent makes a difference too. Beating Niagara and LIU (3 wins between them) doesn't always translate into wins against better teams, despite the confidence boost. Still, UB has a 10 day break, they can work on lots of things, and their next opponent Bucknell is 4-6, so a winnable game for UB.

I agree with you, but there are really only two former D2 players on the team, Winfield and Stone, and both struggle at times. Many other players have D1 experience, and of course two are true freshman who really have not contributed much yet.

While everything said about the refs is accurate, the bigger problem is that Buffalo could not handle Niagara's defensive pressure, which has nothing to do with the refs. If we could have handled the pressure and won by 20 (we were winning by 17 at one point, I think), no one would care about the refs. Every opposing coach is going to see the video of this game and bring the defensive pressure. And Niagara kept it up the entire second half and there were no obvious adjustments by UB (which I believe to be the fault of the coaching staff) other than 2 or 3 times when they used Ogden as an outlet in the back court. They tried to dribble through pressure repeatedly; sometimes they retreated to the corner of the front court at the mid-court line, the worst place to go against half-court pressure. So let's hope the coaching staff has worked on this since the Niagara game.

Image Credit: ubbulls.com Playing in their first ever post-season match, Buffalo was swept by Boston College on Friday afternoon, ending their season with a with a 19–14 record. It was a season of many firsts for the Bulls, and with only one regular starter not expected to return next year, the Bulls seem like they could achieve even more success in the next season. Buffalo simply got outplayed by Boston College in almost all phases of the game. On offense, the Bulls hit 0.228 (not a bad number), but Boston College hit 0.366. For Buffalo, the problem on offense was that they got a total of five kills from their three outside hitters, and none of those outside hitters had a positive hitting percentage. The other front row players all hit 0.300 or above, led by senior middle blocker Courtney Okwara with 10 kills (and a 0.563 hitting percentage), junior right side Emma Gielas with 10 kills (0.320) and senior middle blocker Abby Leigh with 7 kills (0.400). Sophomore setter Mandy Leigh had 5 kills and hit 0.500. On defense, Buffalo recorded 29 digs, compared to 42 by Boston College. And then there was that 0.366 hitting percentage by BC. Serving was a major problem for the Bulls, who picked up just one ace compared to 7 for Boston College. In the first set, Buffalo stayed close to BC at 15–15, but then the Eagles outscored Buffalo 10–3 to take the set, as Buffalo made a lot of errors in that stretch. In the second set, the Bulls never led, fell behind early, and couldn't close the score, losing 25–17. Buffalo gave BC a much tougher time in the third set, eventually losing 27–25, after Buffalo achieved a set point opportunity taking a 25–24 lead on a kill from Gielas, but Buffalo would not score again. Notes: Among the many accomplishments for this team were the 10 regular season MAC wins, tying the previous record; advancing the MAC semi-finals for the first time ever; 19 wins is the most by any UB team since joining the MAC, and second most since joining Division I. Three players (Abby Leigh, Mandy Leigh and Okwara) were named All-MAC, Buffalo has never had three players in a single season with All-MAC honors. There were plenty of individual accomplishments as well. Sophomore outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská finished 9th in the NCAA and 1st in the MAC with 64 aces and 0.55 aces per set, both numbers by far the best of any Bulls player in the rally scoring era. Mandy Leigh finished 3rd in the MAC in assists per set at 10.48. Okwara led the MAC in hitting percentage at 0.420. Abby Leigh finished 3rd in the MAC in hitting percentage (0.367) and 5th in the MAC in blocks per set (1.10) and was the MAC leader in solo blocks. Incoming freshmen in 2023: 5-11 setter Liv Gravatt, Maryville, TN; Chloe Brown, 5-9 libero/defensive specialist, Shaker Heights, OH; 6-3 outside hitter Manoela Forlín, Brazil. Also 6-0 middle blocker Tehya Shaw will be available after red-shirting during 2022 because of a surgery. Boston College assistant coach Marissa Prinzbach was the regular setter for UB in 2014 and 2015. Kudos to the ACCN announcer (whose name I didn't catch), who seems to have memorized the UB Media Guide and provided facts about UB into the broadcast rather effortlessly, as if he had been following the team all year long.

Despite the UB loss in the MAC Semi-Finals, 3–0 to Bowling Green (the eventual MAC Champion), Buffalo has been invited to play in the post-season NIVC tournament. Their first match will be at 4pm on Friday, December 2 at Boston College. https://ubbulls.com/news/2022/11/27/womens-volleyball-volleyball-earns-at-large-bid-for-national-invitational-volleyball-championship-tournament.aspx This is the first ever post-season appearance for UB Volleyball.

Post game celebration photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClOSWS3OLlW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

For the first time in program history, the UB Volleyball team has advanced to the MAC Semi-Finals, with a 3-1 victory over #3 seed Ohio. This was Buffalo's 11th MAC win, a new program best. Buffalo will face Bowling Green on Monday at 7pm (ESPN+) at Worthen Arena at Ball State University. Bowling Green defeated the Bulls twice in the regular season, with Buffalo losing in 5 sets in the first match and Bowling Green pulling off a sweep in the second match. In the first set against Ohio, the Bulls fell behind 16-9, their offense struggling against the large Ohio blockers. But in volleyball, the front row players either rotate to the back row or rotate out, and now the Bulls had the advantage against the shorter Ohio blockers. Buffalo went on a 12-3 run, to take a 21-19 lead, the first three points of that run coming from sophomore outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská, who picked up a block and two kills. With Ohio's taller front line now back on the court, they tied the set at 22. Buffalo picked up 2 kills, from fifth year outside hitter Cali Assaley and senior middle blocker Courtney Okwara. After an Ohio point, UB's junior right side Emma Gielas scored a kill to end the set in Buffalo's favor, 25-23. The disparity of the size of the Ohio blockers was not lost on Buffalo coach Scott Smith, who switched his rotation for the remaining sets so that when Buffalo had three front row attackers, they were facing Ohio's shorter blockers. This didn't pay off in the 2nd set, which Buffalo lost 25-22, after trailing by 6 late. The Bulls hit oly 0.171 in the second set. But the rotation change seemed to help in the rest of the match. Buffalo never fell behind by more than 3 in the third set, which saw 17 ties. At 23-23, a kill by Okwara and then a diving overpass by Ohio which landed just wide, gave Buffalo the set. The final play was challenged by Ohio, and after a long review, the call was upheld (most likely there was not a good angle to see if the ball was in or not). Buffalo hit 0.279 in the 3rd set, UB's best of the match so far. Buffalo pulled ahead early in the 4th set 5-3, and maintained a 2 or 3 point lead for most of the set. Each time Ohio made a small run, the Bulls responded, and the Bulls were never tied or behind. At 18-16, Buffalo went on a 4 point run, the first three of those points coming on blocks or kills by Abby Leigh, the final point coming on an ace from Trebichavská. Ohio went on their own short run of 3 points, but Abby Leigh responded with a kill and then an ace to give Buffalo match point, 24-19. After two Ohio points, a quick set by sophomore setter Mandy Leigh to Okwara resulted in a kill to finish the match. The Bulls hit 0.375 for the set, their best in the match. Trebichavská led the team with 19 points on 14 kills, 4 aces and 2 blocks. Okwara had a team-high 16 kills, and made only 1 attack error, for a 0.556 hitting percentage. She added 3 blocks and finished with 18.5 points. Abby Leigh was not far behind, with 18 points, coming on 11 kills (just 1 attack error for a hitting percentage of 0.435), 2 aces and a team-high 7 blocks. Mandy Leigh had 51 assists. Trebichavská had 14 digs and sophomore libero Maria Futey had 12. Notes: When Trebichavská served, both Leigh's placed their hands behind their head, probably to protect themselves from the high velocity serves from Trebichavská. Mandy Leigh was named first team All-MAC, and Abby Leigh and Okwara were named second team all-MAC. This is the first time that Buffalo has had three all-MAC awards in a season. Play of the Match: Ohio's 6-4 middle blocker Caitlin O'Farrell had a two inch height advantage over any of the Bulls players, and made good use of that height advantage and picked up 14 kills during the mtach. With the Bulls leading 17-14 in the fourth set, O'Farrell ran an unusual play, a middle slide (I think the only time during the match she did this), but Abby Leigh was ready for it and Leigh came away with a monster solo block. This caused Ohio to take their final timeout.

Senior setter Emma Puzausky Photo credit: Paige Miller Buffalo defeated Akron 3–0 on Senior Night, not allowing the Zips to score 20 points in any set, and in so doing, Buffalo earns the #6 seed into the MAC Tournament. Buffalo will play #3 Ohio on Sunday at Worthen Arena at Ball State University at 7pm (ESPN+). Buffalo split two five-set matches against Ohio. Buffalo finishes 10–8 on the season, and this is only the second time since UB joined the MAC that Buffalo has finished over 0.500 in a season. It also marks the second time in program history where Buffalo will play in the MAC Tournament "Round of 6", both times coming under head coach Scott Smith. And both times the Bulls reached the "Round of 6", the Bulls got off to a terrible start in the MAC, starting 1–5 in 2019 and 2–5 this year. Buffalo has never advanced to the MAC Semi-Finals. The Play of the Match™­ was when senior setter Emma Puzausky was announced as the starter for the Bulls. Puzausky hasn't played much during her 4 years at UB, but she is one of the most popular players on the team. She has started only 5 matches previously during her career, and on senior night she got her only start in Alumni Arena, as Smith switched to a two setter offense for the first time all year. In her freshman and sophomore seasons, when Puzausky appeared in a two setter offense, she usually had far fewer assists than the other setter, Scout McLerran. Against Akron on senior night, Puzausky had 17 assists, which was very close to Buffalo's "other" setter (and the normal starter), sophomore Mandy Leigh, who had 19 assists. And so with Buffalo running an offense they hadn't used all year, the Bulls hit 0.295, well above their their season average of 0.227. Buffalo's other seniors who will not be returning also got mucho playing time. Jenna Sonnenberg, from Niagara Wheatfield HS, has been a regular back row player for the Bulls during her four years, but saw only limited playing time this year. Against Akron, Sonnenberg started for the first time all season, played the entire match, and picked up 13 digs (a huge number for a defensive specialist in 3 sets), including a one-handed dig diving to her right to keep a rally going in the third set. Middle blocker Olivia DeBortoli, who has started occasionally and has been used as a sub occasionally this year, played the entire match and picked up 6 kills and zero attack errors, and led the team with 5 blocks. Fifth year outside hitter Cali Assaley has been a starter most of the year, and picked up 7 kills. Junior right side Emma Gielas led the team with 12 kills, and committed only one attack error. Senior middle blocker Abby Leigh had 7 kills and zero attack errors. Sophomore outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská had 7 kills, just 2 attack errors, plus 2 aces and a team high 18 digs. Sophomore libero Maria Futey had 17 digs, while Mandy Leigh had 14 digs. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that senior middle blockers Abby Leigh and Courtney Okwara, both were not honored on senior night, and are expected to return next year. Notes: Mandy Leigh entered the match averaging 10.60 assists per set, good for 29th in the NCAA. She recently moved into 9th place all time in assists on the UB career list. Her 2,212 assists in two years puts her on a pace that will put her in first place all-time for UB by the time her career ends. Her 10.19 assists per set also would be the Bulls all-time high if she keeps going at that pace. Trebichavská entered the match 11th in the NCAA at 0.54 assists per set. If she continues at this pace would make her by far the UB all-time leader in aces per set in the rally scoring era. Maria Futey watch: an outside hitter turned libero, Futey is averaging 4.58 digs per set since she took over the libero position, which would be fifth all-time for the Bulls (but since Futey played outside hitter early in the season, her actual full season average is lower). Akron libero Lauren Latka is so popular ... oh never mind, I have used that joke four times already. Buffalo needed a loss by Northern Illinois tonight to make the MAC Tournament. NIU lost to Western Michigan 3–2, giving Buffalo and NIU equal 10–8 records, and Buffalo advanced by tie-breakers. This season is just the 4th time that UB has finished at 0.500 or higher since joining the MAC, two of them coming under Scott Smith, and the other two coming under his predecessor Blair Brown Lipsitz. All four of the 0.500 or better seasons have come in the last six years.

Also, the article at UBBulls.com indicates four seniors will be honored on Senior Night, meaning that seniors Abby Leigh and Courtney Okwara will likely return next year. Great news for next year!

Other when I am typing at a computer, my fingers are crossed!!! I am still shocked that the UB RPI is 117, that seems extremely good for a team 9-8 in mid major conference.

Looks like Wednesday night's VB match could still potentially put UB into the MAC Tournament. From the ubbulls.com website: "Currently, the Bulls are in seventh place in the MAC standings. The final spot for the MAC Tournament is up for grabs between Northern Illinois (17-10, 10-7 MAC) and the Bulls. Both teams split their season series in sweeping fashion. With a win over the Zips and a Northern Illinois loss, the Bulls will take the sixth and final spot of the MAC Tournament. Buffalo would win the tiebreaker on division win percentage. The Bulls would finish 7-3 in the MAC East as Northern Illinois would finish 6-4 in the MAC West."

UNOFFICIAL, but I have been informed that the tie-breakers favor Northern Illinois and so Buffalo will not advance to the MAC tournament.

The UB Volleyball team lost two late season matches to the MAC East Champion Bowling Green, greatly reducing their chances of reaching the MAC Tournament. With one match left, Buffalo has a 9–8 MAC record and needs a win and a loss by Northern Illinois to tie for 6th place, and then tie breakers would take over. The Bulls split two matches against the Huskies, and I haven't tried to compute the next tie breakers. In the first match, Buffalo took the first two sets in rather dominant fashion, hitting 0.267 while Bowling Green hit only 0.141. Junior right-side Emma Gielas had 7 kills, while sophomore outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská had 6 kills and 4 aces. But starting in set three, the Bulls offense came to a dead stop, hitting 0.022 in set 3 and 0.095 in set 4, bothered by the strong blocking of Bowling Green and superior back row defense, led by libero Yelianiz Torres (who finished with 36 digs). When the Bulls' attacks were in-bounds, they were usually dug by Bowling Green, and when the Bulls went around the BG blockers, the attack often went out of bounds. In the fifth set, Buffalo took a 9–8 lead on a kill from Trebichavská followed by an ace from Trebichavská. The Falcons then scored 4 of the next 5 points, to take a lead. The teams traded points until with BG leading 13–12, a kill by the Falcons' Lauryn Hovey (who led the match with 17 kills) and an attack error by Trebichavská gave the match to Bowling Green. Buffalo could only manage a 0.125 hitting percentage in the fifth set while Bowling Green hit 0.381. Trebichavská led the match with 25 points, including a career high 7 aces and a team high 16 kills. It was certainly the most overwhelming serving performance of the year for Trebichavská, who only had 2 service errors. The 7 aces is just one shy of the school record, and second most in the MAC this year (tied with teammate Abby Leigh). Trebichavská played two years at Bowling Green before transferring to Buffalo. Senior middle blocker Courtney Okwara had 14 kills and just 1 error and hit 0.433. Senior middle blocker Abby Leigh had 8 blocks. Sophomore libero Maria Futey had 25 digs. Sophomore setter Mandy Leigh had 51 assists. In the second match, Buffalo was swept 3–0, hitting only 0.175 for the match, while the Falcons hit 0.235. The Bulls made a late run in set 1, trailing 19–12, only to cut the BG lead to two at 21–19, but the Bulls would only score once more. In set 3, Buffalo led most of the way, and held a 22–19 lead, only to see Bowling Green assert themselves by scoring the next 6 points. Gielas led the team with 11 kills, while Trebichavská and Okwara each had 10, with Okwara hitting 0.400. Abby Leigh and Okwara each had 3 blocks. Mandy Leigh and Futey each had 14 digs. Mandy Leigh had 31 assists. Notes: Senior defensive specialist Jenna Sonnenberg made her first appearance on the court since October 7, taking the place in the rotation of junior defensive specialist Hayley Montoya. Montoya was unable to play and was in street clothes. She spent both matches on the bench wearing sun-glasses. Maria Futey watch: since she took over the libero position, she has averaged 4.53 digs per set, the most by a UB libero in almost a decade. In the second match, Futey had more digs that Bowling Green's Torres, who is 4th in the MAC in digs per set. Buffalo finishes the season on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 when they face Akron at Alumni Arena at 6pm (ESPN+). It's a must-win match for the Bulls if they are going to make the MAC tournament, plus they need some help with a Northern Illinois loss to Western Michigan (NIU defeate WMU 3–2 earlier in the season), and then some tie-breakers are needed.