Sweep and Double-Sweep! Volleyball downs Kent State twice

[dj_paige]

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.

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by dj_paige

[dj_paige]

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

[TML1000]

Good to see Volleyball having a solid season to go with the great success in soccer and football. Likely need a sweep at home this weekend to have a realistic shot at a top 6 finish...certainly in play with the current form of the squad.

[dj_paige]

1 hour ago, TML1000 said:

Good to see Volleyball having a solid season to go with the great success in soccer and football. Likely need a sweep at home this weekend to have a realistic shot at a top 6 finish...certainly in play with the current form of the squad.

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).

Edited October 26, 2022 by dj_paige