Volleyball Reaches 0.500 in the MAC

[dj_paige]

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:

Edited October 29, 2022 by dj_paige