dj_paige Posted September 3, 2023 Share Posted September 3, 2023 (edited) The UB Volleyball team moved to 6–0 on the season with a sweep of Binghamton. Buffalo also wins their own Invitational Tournament, losing only one set in the entire tournament. Their 6–0 start is their best in a decade. Buffalo and Binghamton played even early in sets 1 and 3, with both of those sets tied at 10, and then Buffalo pulled away for 25–22 wins. In set 2, Buffalo pulled away from a 5–5 tie and picked up their largest margin of victory in the match, 25–18. The Bulls fared better than Binghamton in almost all phases of the game, outhitting the Bearcats 0.271 to 0.195, out-blocking them 7–3 and out-digging them 41 to 35. The Play of the Match™ belonged to freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin. At 16–12 of the second set, Forlin had to dive to her right to make a dig inches off the floor on a hard hit ball by Binghamton. Her pass went to Buffalo junior setter Mandy Leigh, whose perfect bump set to Trebichavská resulted in a kill off the block. You can see this play at https://www.instagram.com/p/CwtURiOMHfs/ The Bulls were led by 5th year middle blocker Abby Leigh, who had 13.5 points coming on 9 kills (with just 1 attack error), four blocks (3 solo) and one ace. Leigh, as she did a year ago, leads the MAC in solo blocks, and right now she is 3rd in hitting percentage in the MAC. Senior right side Emma Gielas also had a strong match, finishing with 12 points on 11 kills (with just 2 errors) and 2 blocks. Senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská picked up 11 points on 8 kills and 3 aces. Trebichavská is second in the MAC in points per set. Mandy Leigh had 25 assists. Forlin led the team with 14 digs, and Mandy Leigh had 11. Middle blocker Abby Leigh Other Stuff At 24–18 of the second set, a Buffalo attack by Forlin was ruled out-of-bounds, even though it looked to be in-bounds by a foot. Buffalo coach Scott Smith, who had only one challenge left (his earlier challenge being unsuccessful) decided not to risk losing the challenge, given Buffalo's large lead. Its always possible — and in fact it happened earlier in the tournament — that a ball that looks clearly in or out, but the replay is still inconclusive. Freshman middle blocker Tehya Shaw played parts of sets 2 and 3, picking up a kill and two blocks. Other than that, Buffalo used the same 8 players for the entire tournament. 5th year middle blocker Courtney Okwara leads the MAC (by far) with a 0.506 hitting percentage. In second place in the MAC is Keona Salesman of Western Michigan at 0.372. Okwara was 9th in the country in hitting percentage in games played through August 31. Buffalo next plays at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Xavier Invitational. Buffalo will face Missouri on Friday, Sept 8 at 10am, followed by a match against the host team at 6:30pm that night, and the next morning Buffalo will face Bellarmine at 10am. Only the match against Xavier will be streamed (on Flosports). Okay, who knows how to pronounce "Bellarmine"? Is the last syllable pronounced like the word "mine", or is the last syllable pronounced like the first syllable of "minimum"? Mark yourself down as a Bellarmine expert if you picked the latter. Because two of the matches will not be streamed, join me for somewhat live commentary on the Bull Run Discord at https://discord.gg/f2uwEN5w, you will need to create a user ID and password, but it's free. Sign in and then switch to the "Volleyball 2023 Thread" channel. Look for some new hashtags, like #KT_KABOOM (can you guess what that one is?) and #ALSB (Abby Leigh Solo Block) and a few others that I haven't invented yet. Edited September 3, 2023 by dj_paige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_paige Posted September 6, 2023 Author Share Posted September 6, 2023 (edited) Buffalo plays Missouri this weekend (Friday morning, 10 am). Buffalo has only 1 win ever over a Power 5 team, that over Rutgers in 2017. And despite what the story says, we have won sets against other Power 5 teams, specifically Indiana and Northwestern. Those three opponents were perennially at the bottom of the Big Ten standings. But a win is a win. https://www.ubbullrun.com/2017/9/2/16246774/for-the-first-time-in-program-history-ub-volleyball-defeats-big-ten Buffalo and Missouri have a common opponent, Colgate. Buffalo defeated Colgate 3-2 in an exhibition match, with UB Coach Scott Smith going deep into his bench for the last 3 sets. Missouri defeated Colgate 3-2 in a regular season match, with (I assume) their regulars playing. So, could UB knock off another P5 team? It's certainly possible. #GoBulls Edited September 6, 2023 by dj_paige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrooklynBull Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 5 hours ago, dj_paige said: Buffalo plays Missouri this weekend (Friday morning, 10 am). Buffalo has only 1 win ever over a Power 5 team, that over Rutgers in 2017. And despite what the story says, we have won sets against other Power 5 teams, specifically Indiana and Northwestern. Those three opponents were perennially at the bottom of the Big Ten standings. But a win is a win. https://www.ubbullrun.com/2017/9/2/16246774/for-the-first-time-in-program-history-ub-volleyball-defeats-big-ten Buffalo and Missouri have a common opponent, Colgate. Buffalo defeated Colgate 3-2 in an exhibition match, with UB Coach Scott Smith going deep into his bench for the last 3 sets. Missouri defeated Colgate 3-2 in a regular season match, with (I assume) their regulars playing. So, could UB knock off another P5 team? It's certainly possible. #GoBulls The director of marketing for Missouri Athletics is former UB quarterback, Tony Daniel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UBinMD Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 14 hours ago, dj_paige said: Buffalo plays Missouri this weekend (Friday morning, 10 am). Buffalo has only 1 win ever over a Power 5 team, that over Rutgers in 2017. And despite what the story says, we have won sets against other Power 5 teams, specifically Indiana and Northwestern. Those three opponents were perennially at the bottom of the Big Ten standings. But a win is a win. https://www.ubbullrun.com/2017/9/2/16246774/for-the-first-time-in-program-history-ub-volleyball-defeats-big-ten Buffalo and Missouri have a common opponent, Colgate. Buffalo defeated Colgate 3-2 in an exhibition match, with UB Coach Scott Smith going deep into his bench for the last 3 sets. Missouri defeated Colgate 3-2 in a regular season match, with (I assume) their regulars playing. So, could UB knock off another P5 team? It's certainly possible. #GoBulls The team is playing well and with confidence. Would be a nice win for the program. Let's hope they can do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue03 Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 7 hours ago, UBinMD said: The team is playing well and with confidence. Would be a nice win for the program. Let's hope they can do it! A win would be incredible for confidence. Might even be enough to earn a couple votes for top 25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_paige Posted September 7, 2023 Author Share Posted September 7, 2023 1 hour ago, Blue03 said: A win would be incredible for confidence. Might even be enough to earn a couple votes for top 25 Even if we win all 3 matches this weekend, I don't see us getting votes for the Top 25. We haven't really beaten a top team, or even a top 100 team, according to Massey rankings. And also we face Arkansas next weekend, they are currently #17, I think we would need to beat them first before anyone serious considers Buffalo for the top 25. By the way, Massey has UB at number 94. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_paige Posted September 10, 2023 Author Share Posted September 10, 2023 So just to follow up, now Buffalo has beaten a top 100 team in the Massey ranking. Missouri was in the 60s and we swept them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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