dj_paige

I think you might have missed the ChubbyHubby's humor

You mean like Lexi McNabb? I think there are some NCAA regulations that now allow the teams to announce their signees. Other than that, I think you are right, it doesn't really mean much.

Yes, a recruit named Paige! 🙂 👍

The only way I can get the wifi at Alumni Arena to connect is to re-start my phone when I get there. I can't explain why that works. I will also say that this was not a problem at Koessler Athletic Center, and the wifi was faster there as well.

You can win in the MAC without great big players, but you need good shooters, especially from behind the 3 point line. We didn't show that at all, our 3 point or even mid-range shooting wasn't there; the offense was mostly guards slashing into the paint and trying to score one-on-one. But yes, our big players Johnson, Salmons, Ogden were ineffective. Canisius controlled the paint.

Its not clear to me if there are attitude issues or not. One thing I did see which I thought was unusual is that normally, when players are coming off the court (because they have been subbed out), they slap hands with all of the coaches and all of their teammates as they take their seat on the bench. At least twice, there was no hand-slap by Becky Burke nor one offered by the player. I'm going to keep watching this, and also I'm curious to see if Whitesell or UB opponent's head coaches does the same (and if anyone watches a Syracuse WBB game in person, I'd be curious if FLJ does this or not). Or it may be nothing. To tell you the truth, when it became clear months ago that almost the entire WBB roster was going to leave, I wrote off this season in my mind. In fact, that's typically what I do whenever a new coach comes new to the program, just as with Lance Leipold. So a poor W-L record this season for WBB would not be a surprise to me, nor would I be upset about it. Attitude issues, on the other hand, are a problem and I wouldn't be happy if there are actually some attitude issues.

The NCAA seeding doesn't really work that way. The teams in the same bracket as Pitt are not considered to have seeds, but just because Pitt is #4 doesn't mean UB is #13 seed. The unseeded teams in the same bracket as Pitt are mostly selected by geography and to keep travel costs down if possible (although there are other reasons as well).

WBB — virtually no contribution from 3 big players, total of 6 points and 3 rebounds. No real outside or mid-range shooting threat. All offense from guards slashing into the paint or from offensive rebounds, you can't win like that. Add in team's 14-for-26 from the free throw line, that is pretty awful. And if Zakiyah Winfield didn't have a great shooting night (7-for-11), we would have been blown out by Canisius. So, 10 point win over Daemen was unimpressive, and two point loss to Canisius also unimpressive (or worse). Buffalo needs to improve in a lot of areas. And then there's the alleged D2 POY Re'Shawna Stone: she played point guard mostly, 3 assists in 37 minutes is pretty low; did not make a basket, got fouled a bunch and made 8 free throws and did have 8 rebounds. Not what I was expecting fro the alleged D2 POY, but as I have said elsewhere, I think that award was bogus, and I'll stop harping on it.

I agree, this game was all Buffalo. Always great to see the team waving to the fans after a big win. I hope Ellie Simmons is okay, she got hit in the head near the end of the game and had to be helped up and off the field.

Junior Stacia Gollogly Photo credit: Mark Debortoli The UB Volleyball team pushed their winning streak to six matches, and seven in their last 8 matches, with a pair of wins over Miami (OH) this weekend. Buffalo is now 9–6 in the MAC, tied for 4th place, but because of tie-breakers, they would have the #5 seed into the MAC tournament if the season were to end today. The Bulls have clinched at least a 0.500 record in the MAC, just the 4th time Buffalo has done so since joining the MAC, and the second time under head coach Scott Smith. In the first match against Miami, a weak first set by the Bulls in which they hit 0.108 compared to Miami's 0.278, led to Miami taking the set 25–19. But that was the last weak set of the weekend for the Bulls, who won the next six sets over two matches. Thereafter, Buffalo held Miami to 21 points or less in each set. In the last two sets of the second match, Buffalo held Miami to a zero hitting percentage. In the first match, junior right side Emma Gielas led the Bulls with 12 kills and just 2 errors for a 0.370 hitting percentage, and had 3 blocks. Senior middle blocker Courtney Okwara had 9 kills and hit 0.438, and added 3 blocks. Buffalo's other middle blocker, senior Olivia DeBortoli, struggled on offense and was replaced by junior Stacia Gollogly for the third set, and in two sets Gollogly had 5 kills and just one error, plus led the team with 5 blocks. The Bulls two outside hitters in the match, sophomore Katrin Trebichavská and fifth year Cali Assaley both struggled. Neither hit above 0.000 for the match, while the rest of the team hit 0.406. Sophomore setter Mandy Leigh had 7 kills and just 1 error, and 38 assists and 10 digs. Sophomore libero Maria Futey led the team with 19 digs. Trebichavská had 13 digs. Gollogly has been the jack-of-all-trades for the Bulls this year, playing all three front row positions and sometimes serving as well. Her play in the first match against Miami earned her the start at middle blocker in the second match, and she made the most of her opportunity. Gollogly led the team with 12 kills and hit 0.450, led the team with 16.5 points, and also led the team with 6 blocks. Okwara had 9 kills and hit 0.600, plus 3 blocks. Okwara had missed some time with an injury, and then when she returned it seemed as if she wasn't 100%, but against Miami she played as well as she ever has. The strong play of Gollogly and Okwara at middle blocker was important for the Bulls as senior middle blocker Abby Leigh did not make the trip to Miami. Abby Leigh is the team's leading blocker and also second leading scorer and second on the team in aces. Assaley continued to struggle in the second match against Miami and was eventually replaced by freshman outside hitter Lauren Otten, who picked up a career high 5 kills in 2 sets. Mandy Leigh had 38 assists. Futey and Trebichavská each had 11 digs. Notes: Buffalo will face MAC-East leader Bowling Green twice at Alumni Arena this upcoming weekend. The first match is Friday, November 11 at 6pm and the second match is Saturday, November 12 at 7pm. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+ and are free to attend in person. A split of these two matches will be critical if Buffalo is to make the MAC tournament; naturally winning both matches would be even better. The two matches at Miami saw some of the most effective serving by the Bulls all season. In the first match, Buffalo had 7 aces and just 6 errors, with Futey leading the way with 3 aces. In the second match, Buffalo had 6 aces and 7 errors, 3 of the aces from Trebichavská. Buffalo has gotten a lot better at avoiding service errors, compared to earlier in the season, and this has been a big factor in the Bulls recent success. Trebichavská, the MAC leader in aces and aces per set, had her best serving of the year, consistently forcing Miami into bad passes (this doesn't show up in the box score directly), picked up 4 aces across the two matches, and she did it without going her jump serve against Miami. That's almost like Aaron Judge turning into a slap-hitter for the second half of the season. Maria Futey watch: the made up statistic I have been following for Futey is digs per set in only those matches where she played libero. Her average is now up to 4.48 digs per set, good enough for 5th in the MAC (but the official statistics include all games at all positions, so Futey's season average is lower). No Buffalo libero has been that high in nearly a decade. Mandy Leigh is averaging 10.63 assists per set, good enough for 3rd in the MAC.

Sophomore setter Mandy Leigh Photo credit: ubbulls.com Picking up their 4th straight win, the UB Volleyball team defeated Central Michigan in 5 sets on Saturday. It was a huge victory for the Bulls, defeating a team above them in the standings, as they push to make the top 6 by the end of the season — only the top 6 teams make the MAC Tournament. The Bulls are now above 0.500 at 7–6 in the MAC after a 1–3 start, and are tied with Northern Illinois for 6th place in the MAC. (Buffalo split two matches with Northern Illinois, I don't know what the tie breakers are). The Bulls took the 2nd and 4th sets, while the Chippewas won sets 1 and 3. The fifth set wound up unexpectedly dramatic, as the Bulls earned their first match point opportunity at 14–8, their 14th point coming on a trademark no-look behind-the-head setter dump by sophomore setter Mandy Leigh. No one expected drama at this point, but drama we would get. The Chippewas then ran off 7 straight points to get their own match point at 15–14. In the streak, the Chippewas had four blocks, each time a Buffalo player tried to blast the ball through a double-block with no success. This in fact was a problem for the Bulls the entire match, as often the attackers would try to blast the ball through a double-block, only to see the ball land on the Buffalo side. The Chippewas had 21 blocks during the match. At 15–14, the Chippewas got a good bump set from the libero, but CMU right side Mallory Hernandez faced a double-block by Buffalo, tried to go around the block and hit the ball just wide. So at 15–15, Buffalo's sophomore defensive specialist Julianna Lopez stepped to the service line. Lopez hadn't played in over a month due to an injury and even when she returned to uniform, there wasn't a spot in the rotation for her. Against CMU, with fifth year outside hitter Cali Assaley not playing well in the back row, Lopez was subbed in during the 4th set to serve and play back row defense. Her deep serve at 15–15 in the fifth set led to a CMU attack that was easily handled by the Bulls. The set went to junior right side Stacia Gollogy, and with just one blocker in front of her, Gollogly attacked off the blocker's high hands, the ball deflecting past the defense for a point. Gollogly had not started the match, entered the match in the second set replacing junior right side Emma Gielas, did not pick up a kill in the second set, but ended up with 12 kills for the match. With the Bulls now having another match point opportunity at 16–15, Lopez went to the "yo-yo" serve, previous serve deep and then this serve short. The CMU libero had to dive forward to get to the ball and her pass went over the net, directly to senior middle blocker Olivia DeBortoli, who slammed the ball down on the CMU side with two hands, end of match, Buffalo victory. Notes: Mandy Leigh had 52 assists, one of them her 2,000th assist while with the Bulls. She had 103 assists for the weekend. Assaley led the team with 17 kills, while sophomore outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská had 14, Gollogly had 12 and senior middle blocker Abby Leigh had 11 (with just one error). Mandy Leigh had 8 kills and zero errors. Lopez finished with 9 digs in less than 2 sets of playing time. Trebichavská had a career high 28 digs, while sophomore libero Maria Futey had 21. DeBortoli led the team in blocks with 5, Abby Leigh had 3. Buffalo coach Scott Smith made three lineup changes during the match, all of which paid off in the fifth set. Senior middle blocker Courtney Okwara started, but DeBortoli was put into the lineup for Okwara in the 2nd set. Lopez played back row for Assaley starting in the 4th set, and Gollogly replaced Gielas in the 2nd set. This season is very reminiscent of Smith's first season as head coach, when the Bulls started the MAC season with a 1–5 record, and then went on a rampage through the best teams in the MAC, to finish 8–8 and make the MAC tournament. Buffalo plays at Miami next weekend, Friday, November 4 and 6pm and Saturday, November 5 at 5pm, both matches on ESPN3. Miami has the worst record in the MAC at 1–12. Highlight reel:

Sophomore libero Maria Futey Photo by Mark DeBortoli UB Volleyball put together another strong all-around performance on Friday night defeating Eastern Michigan 3–1, to raise their record to 6–6 in the MAC, the first time they have had a 0.500 record in the MAC this season. This gives them 4 wins in the last five matches, but they face a strong Central Michigan team on Saturday, a team they likely need to defeat if they are going to have a chance to advance to the MAC Tournament. Buffalo got strong performances from so many players, its hard to single anyone out. So let's just go through the list in no particular order. Fifth year outside hitter Cali Assaley had 15 kills, just 4 errors, plus 2 aces. Junior right side hitter Emma Gielas continued her strong play recently with 18 kills and 3 errors, plus 4 blocks and 2 aces. Sophomore outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská had 16 kills with just 6 errors, plus 3 aces. Sophomore setter Mandy Leigh had 51 assists in the 4 sets, a very big number. And Maria Futey continues to put together spectacular performances at libero, with a career high 27 digs in 4 sets, a very big number as well. It was Trebichavská who drew audible gasps from the audience on several occasions, with her high velocity shots and serves. KT leads the MAC in both aces an aces per set, and her serving definitely caused problems for EMU. It was her warp-speed kill at 21–14 in the second set, on an out of system play, which put a dent in the floor, that earned the Play of the Match™ award, and drew gasps from the crowd. The Bulls certainly are playing at a higher level than earlier in the MAC season. Against EMU, Buffalo hit 0.300 or better in every set, had 19 more kills than EMU with fewer attack errors. They had more blocks than EMU and more digs than EMU. It was one of the few matches this season where Buffalo had more service aces than service errors. Notes: Trebichavská wasn't all velocity though. Twice she scored on soft roll shots, nearly parallel to the net, that landed untouched in the EMU front left court, where no defender was positioned. And one time, on a very tight set, Trebichavská used her left hand to wipe the ball off the blocker's forearms for a kill. Mandy Leigh also found the empty front left court with a no-look, behind the back, setter dump. By my count, Buffalo had 9 designed back row attacks in the match by either Trebichavská or Assaley, not all of them were successful, but many were, giving the Bulls offense a different look than in previous years. I would guess that in the previous three years under head coach Scott Smith, the Bulls didn't have 9 designed back row attacks in any season. It is rare to see a team regularly attack out of the back row in the MAC, and even more rare, sometimes either KT or Assaley attack from the right back position, something almost never seen in NCAA women's volleyball. But now the back-row attack is a regular part of the UB offense, with sets coming either in system or out of system. On the other hand, Buffalo has run a criss-cross play many times this year where Emma Gielas attacks out of the front row middle, and there has been almost no success (maybe even zero success, I don't remember one working). Futey continues to sizzle at libero. Since she was moved to this position (a position she had not played before with the Bulls) she now is averaging 4.55 digs per set. Buffalo has not had a libero averaging over 4 digs per set since 2013, when Kelly Svoboda led the MAC and was fifth in the nation with a jaw-dropping 5.66 digs per set and was named MAC Defensive Player of the Year. Highlight reel:

7 matches left in the season, 4–3 will not get them into the MAC tournament (that would give them an 9–9 season record). They need at least 5–2 in the remaining games, in my opinion, and even then it may come down to tie-breakers. But Scott Smith has done this before, in 2019, Buffalo started 1–5 in the MAC, then knocked off many of the top teams in the MAC and finished 8–8 and was the #7 seed into the MAC tournament. This year, because only 6 teams will make the MAC tournament, I don't think a 0.500 record will get them in. The remaining schedule: Eastern Michigan (3–8 MAC record) (home) Central Michigan (7–4) (home) Miami (1–10) (away) Miami (1–10) (away) Bowling Green (9–2) (home) Bowling Green (9–2) (home) Akron (2–9) (home) So the good news, most of the schedule is at home, with the only road games against the team with the worst record in the MAC. There are 4 likely wins, and if Buffalo can take a match from either Central Michigan or Bowling Green, they still have a chance. It's possible. But ... they may have to pull this off without Courtney Okwara who didn't play last weekend; and although Mandy Leigh plays full time, she is bothered by a injury that requires rest (pure guess on my part, but Mandy Leigh gets to rest during the two games at Miami).

Does anyone have an un-official list of the incoming players for 2023? I haven't been keeping up with the BOOOOOMs.

Additional comments about Sunday's practice, in no particular order It was great to hear an Australian accent from one of the players ... 6-3 forward Kayla Salmons is from Melbourne, she knows or has played against Stephanie Reid and Georgia Woolley. 6-2 true freshman F/G Hattie Ogden can knock down the 3 pointers! Rare in the MAC for a big player to have that in their skill set. I doubt she'll play at guard, despite what the roster says, she will take up space in the paint ... as will Salmons and 6-2 F Kiara Johnson. By MAC standards, this is a big front line. I didn't get a good feel for how the guards will play, as most of the time, they were scrimmaging against the practice team, or even 5 on 0 drills, and defensive drills. The one guard that stood out was 5th year transfer Zakiyah Winfield, who won a D2 national championship this year, she seemed particularly fast. (She also liked chicken wings from Bar Bill and doesn't like chicken wings from the Anchor Bar). The other guard that stood out was true freshman Caelan Ellis, purported to be a strong 3 point shooter. Ellis originally signed with USC Upstate and came to Buffalo with coach Burke. Pronunciations: Zakiyah Winfield ... middle syllable of her first name rhymes with TIE; Re'Shawna Stone, first syllable of her first name rhymes with Ray; Emerita Mashare, first name is like the combination of two women's names Emma-Rita; Kayla Salmons, should be pronounced with an Australian accent, which I can't do. Jazmine Young — remember her? — mostly didn't participate in the practice, she was out there for some non-contact drills. She said she was recovering from an injury, but was in uniform.

Yes, walk-on Briyanna Baron was not on the roster on the web site on Sunday, she is today. She was team manager as a freshman under FLJ, then she left the program, signed up as team manager with BB this year, and when they needed some bodies for the practice squad, she got out on the court and played and BB said hmmmm ... that girl has skillz ... maybe she should be on the roster.

Futey named MAC Defensive Player of the Week. Gielas named MAC Offensive Player of the Week.

Who are the 2 recent departures? Is it Rama Keita and Ronni Nwora (who was not at practice Sunday but still on the roster today)? They do have a walk-on Briyanna Baron, unknown if she will be cleared to play in the season opener.

Rama Keita — I don't know, she left the team recently (a friend of a friend is trying to find out via Tessy Onwuka ... if I hear I will post it) Nia Jordan — transfer to Bethune Cookman (I don't know when that was announced, it was news to me when I heard it the other day)

On Sunday, I heard Becky Burke declare that the team's goal this year is to defend Buffalo's 2021-2022 MAC Championship. Bold statement, since there is only 1 player left from last year's team. (But what else could she say?)

Sophomore libero Maria Futey — ubbulls.com A pair of 3–0 wins over Kent State was the weekend result for the UB Volleyball team, who looked strong in all phases of the game. Buffalo, now winners of three of their last four matches, saw their record in the MAC improve to 5–6, putting them in a tie for 7th place with Western Michigan, but WMU holds the tie-breaker (so really the Bulls would be the #8 seed right now). Only the top 6 teams in the MAC will advance to the MAC tournament. Sophomore libero Maria Futey (to use theatrical language) stole the show in the first match (on Thursday night). Futey picked up a career high of 23 digs (in just 3 sets), diving or sliding all over the court to keep the ball of the floor. She picked up 13 more digs in the second match (on Friday night), giving her 36 digs in the six sets played. Even without a calculator, I can tell you that's big average per set for any libero. It's all the more impressive because she really hadn't played libero much until the Bulls 14th match this season, playing mostly outside hitter. Fifth year outside hitter Cali Assaley also had a very strong weekend, picking up 10 kills in the first match and a team-high 14 in the second match. Assaley started the season on the bench, then split time with Futey at outside hitter, but has played extremely well since she became a regular at the outside hitter position. It would seem that the move by Buffalo coach Scott Smith to play Futey at libero and Assaley as the regular outside hitter, is paying off. Senior middle blocker Abby Leigh continues her monster season, leading the Bulls in blocking both matches, with 6 in the first match and 4 in the second match. Leigh had 13 kills and just 1 attack error across the two matches, and is now third in the MAC in hitting percentage. In the second match, Leigh picked up a career high 7 aces. What doesn't she do well? Leigh's 7 aces is the most in one match by any UB player since 2009 (and I don't have access to records before then), and it moved her to 6th in the MAC in aces per set. Junior right side Emma Gielas also dominated in the two matches, with 13 kills in each match, and just 3 errors across the two matches. When Gielas gets hot, she can carry the offense almost by herself. Sophomore setter Mandy Leigh picked up 32 assists in the first match and 37 assists in the second match. In the first match, with Buffalo leading 10–5 in the second set, sophomore outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská stepped to the service line, and picked up the Play of the Match™. Actually, it was a sequence of serves by Trebichavská, who entered the match leading the MAC in aces per set and total aces. The first serve was poorly returned by Kent State's Savannah Matthews, an overpass that Abby Leigh slammed down. The next serve by Trebichavská, also at Matthews, was too hot to handle and resulted in an ace. Kent State coach Haley Eckerman placed defensive specialist Fabiana Mucciola into the lineup, and then Trebichavská served an ace off of Mucciola. One more ace for Trebichavská, served against the Kent State libero, gave Buffalo a 9 point lead. Later in the same set, Abby Leigh served twice at Mucciola, both resulting in poor passes that turned into easy UB points. Mucciola was removed from the lineup for the rest of the match. In the second match, the second set provided the only drama of the weekend, as Kent State took a 22–18 lead. A kill by Abby Leigh and then back-to-back aces by Abby Leigh narrowed the Kent State lead to 1. After the teams traded points, the UB point coming on a setter dump from Mandy Leigh, a service error by Mandy Leigh gave Kent State two set point opportunities at 24–22. A kill by Assaley and a tip by Gielas tied the set. A kill down the line from Gielas put the Bulls ahead, and then an ace from Assaley gave the Bulls the set. To start the third set, Buffalo got back-to-back kills by Gielas and then three kills in a row from Assaley to take a 5–0 lead. Later in that set, Buffalo broke the set wide open with a 6–0 run, featuring three aces in four plays by Abby Leigh. Notes: Buffalo will remain at home next weekend when they face Eastern Michigan on Friday, October 28 at 6pm. On Saturday, October 29, they face Central Michigan at 4pm. Both matches will be on ESPN+. Kent State Coach Eckerman, now in her first year at Kent State, is one of NCAA volleyball's all-time great players. She was named Player of the Year twice by Volleyball Magazine (in 2012 and 2013), she was a four time All-American and won a national championship at Texas in 2012. Eckerman did something unusual this weekend that I have never seen before — college volleyball timeouts are 75 seconds long, most teams take almost the entire time, but Eckerman sent her team back out onto the court with 40–60 seconds left in the timeout. Buffalo senior middle blocker Courtney Okwara missed the matches due to an injury. Senior Olivia DeBortoli made her first starts of the year, picking up 9 kills and 4 blocks across the two matches.

Fifth year outside hitter Cali Assaley The UB Volleyball team split two five set matches at Ohio this weekend. They won the first (on Friday night) 3–2 (15–12 in the fifth set) and then dropped the second match (on Saturday) 3–2 (21–19 in the fifth set). The good news is that Buffalo showed they could play even with one of the top teams in the MAC. The bad news is that their record is now 3–6 in the MAC, still in 9th place in the MAC, and far away from the record needed to advance to the MAC Tournament. In the first match, Buffalo got a stellar performance from fifth year outside hitter Cali Assaley, who finished with 19 kills and just 2 attack errors, for a 0.472 hitting percentage. Assaley also had 2 aces and 11 digs. In the fifth set, Assaley picked up 6 kills, including 4 kills in a 6–2 run by the Bulls which took them from an 8–7 deficit to a 13–10 lead. Credit also goes to sophomore setter Mandy Leigh, who realized who the hot hand was and kept setting the ball to Assaley. With Buffalo leading 14–12, and Assaley now in the back row, Leigh decided to send the ball to junior right side Emma Gielas. The Ohio defense was slow to get to Gielas, and the one blocker who was there took away the cross-court shot from Gielas (which is the shot Gielas uses most often), but the shot down the line was open, and Gielas's attack down the line landed in, giving Buffalo the win. Sophomore outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská had 11 kills, while senior middle blocker Abby Leigh, senior middle blocker Courtney Okwara and Gielas each had 10 kills. Gielas, who did not start, entered the match in the middle of the second set. Mandy Leigh had 55 assists. Abby Leigh and Okwara had 3 blocks each. Sophomore libero Maria Futey had 19 digs, Trebichavská had 13 digs and Mandy Leigh had 12 digs. Abby Leigh had 9 digs, which is a lot for a middle blocker. In the second match, Buffalo trailed in the fifth set 14–11 and fought off three match point opportunities for Ohio. Two Ohio errors and a kill by Gielas tied the set at 14. After an Ohio point, back-to-back kills by Gielas gave Buffalo their first match point opportunity at 16–15. Two points from Ohio put them back in front and a kill by Gielas (again) after an extremely long rally tied the set at 17. Gielas would pick up one more kill to give Buffalo a 19–18 lead, but then two Ohio kills and a block finished the match in Ohio's favor. In all, Gielas had 5 kills in the set, the first one coming to tie the set at 14. Ohio had 6 match points, while Buffalo had 3. The fifth set opened as the Courtney Okwara show, as she picked up four blocks in the first 11 points. Buffalo coach Scott Smith changed the rotation so Okwara would spend more time on the court, having Abby Leigh serve first (Smith has done this before). Gielas finished with 16 kills and just one attack error. Abby Leigh had 14 kills and just one attack error. Trebichavská had 13 kills and just 3 attack errors. Okwara led the team with 7 blocks while Abby Leigh and Gielas had 4. Trebichavská and Futey had 22 digs (career high for Futey), and Assaley had 19 digs. Mandy Leigh had 48 assists. Notes: In both matches, Buffalo had a higher hitting percentage than Ohio. Trebichavská appeared to take something off of her high velocity serves and attacks in the second match, resulting in much greater accuracy on both. In the first match, Trebichavská had 18 errors, compared to just 6 errors in the second match. Maria Futey continues to play well at libero. Since she took over the libero position she is averaging 3.97 digs per set, which would put her 7th in the MAC in that category if we used only those games played at the libero position. (Futey played other positions and so her full season average is lower). Ohio appeared to win the fifth set at 15–11 when they let an overdig by Futey drop and the referees ruled the ball landed out. Smith challenged, the call was overturned, the ball landed on the line, and the set continued. (Note: so it should go down as a kill for Futey, but the box score lists it as an attack error by Ohio) Buffalo returns home on Thursday, October 20 and Friday, October 21 for two matches against Kent State, both at 6pm (ESPN+).

I agree with your observation. Non-conference success often does not translate to MAC success. I think its really that we play weaker teams in the non-Conference schedule than we play in the MAC. Still, we won a set and came close in another set against Florida Gulf Coast, which made it to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament a year ago, that would qualify as a strong opponent.

The UB Volleyball team struggled in two road matches and lost both this weekend. Buffalo is now 2–5 in the MAC, putting them in 9th place in the MAC, with just the top 6 teams advancing to the MAC Championships in November (the Bulls have 11 matches left in the regular season). At Toledo on Friday night, Buffalo committed 20 service errors and had just 4 aces, and lost 22–25, 25–23, 21–25, 20–25. For the match Toledo only scored 10 more points than Buffalo, so if the Bulls had performed better from the service line, the match could have been theirs. The Bulls also struggled at times in their passing, leading to most attacks coming from their outside hitters — while the middle blockers, seniors Abby Leigh and Courtney Okwara did not get a lot of chances and finished with 5 and 6 kills respectively. This was a double-whammy for the Bulls, their best attackers in terms of hitting percentage not getting the ball much, while the outside hitters, with much lower hitting percentages, got the majority of the attacks. Fifth year outside hitter Cali Assaley led the team with 15 kills. No one else had double-digit kills. Okwara had 7 blocks, five of them solo blocks, while Abby Leigh had 5 blocks. Sophomore setter Mandy Leigh had 37 assists. Sophomore libero Maria Futey had 16 digs. In the service error column, Assaley, junior right side Stacia Gollogly and sophomore outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská each had 5. At defending MAC Champion Ball State on Saturday night, the Bulls looked like they could play relatively even with the Cardinals for two sets, but then the wheels came off. Buffalo dropped a close first set 24–26, but then won the second set relatively easily, 25–19. Okwara had a big first set, with 7 kill and zero errors on 10 swings, while in the second set Trebichavská took over, picking up 5 kills in the set. But then the Bulls offense disappeared in the third set, a 25–11 loss. The fourth set was somewhat better, but still not enough as Buffalo lost 25–19. The Cardinals hit over 0.300 in each of the last two sets. The Bulls' serving was much better against Ball State, with only five errors but also five aces (three aces from Trebichavská, who did not commit a service error). Okwara led the team with 13 kills and Trebichavská had 10. Abby Leigh and Gollogly each had 4 blocks. Mandy Leigh had 39 assists. Trebichavská had a career high 23 digs. Notes: The Bulls play two matches next weekend at Ohio (Friday October 14 at 6pm and Saturday October 15 at 4pm). Ohio is currently 4–2 in the MAC. Toledo libero Ryann Jacqua, positioned in an unusual place for a libero, picked up a huge 32 digs. Normally the libero plays left back, but Jacqua played middle back in this match. In addition, most teams don't normally serve at the libero, since the libero is usually the best passer on the team, but the Bulls often served Jacqua, without much benefit. The libero position isn't a position you normally think of as having a huge effect on the outcome, but Jacqua certainly did have a huge effect on the outcome in this match. Against Ball State, Buffalo's right side attackers, Gollogly and junior Emma Gielas, combined for just 6 kills. Gollogly had 3 kills in 3 sets, while Gielas picked up 3 in the one set she played.

Don't take my word for it, but Mandy Leigh is pretty darn good, winning MAC East Setter of the Week https://twitter.com/MACSports/status/1577015241828757504 This is the 3rd time this season Mandy Leigh has earned this award. (edited)