Volleyball Struggles, Drops Two Road Matches

[dj_paige]

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.

Edited October 9, 2022 by dj_paige

[UBinMD]

12 hours ago, dj_paige said:

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.

Admittedly I don’t know a lot about MAC volleyball, but I do follow UB and watch some matches online. It seems like the last few years we start off well in the out of conference schedule, but then when we get to MAC play they lose. Seems like the matches are close, but can’t come out on top. Is the MAC just a juggernaut conference or are we just not taking our preseason success into MAC play?

[dj_paige]

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.