dj_paige Posted September 10, 2023 Share Posted September 10, 2023 (edited) The UB Volleyball Team swept Missouri and Bellarmine, and also lost to Xavier in 5 sets, at the Xavier Tournament. The Bulls are now 8–1 on the season. Buffalo had only once in their program's history defeated a Power 5 opponent, a win over Rutgers 3–2 in 2017. Buffalo had never swept a Power 5 opponent, until they faced Missouri in the opening match of the tournament, winning 25–18, 25–19 and 25–18. It was a powerful performance by the Bulls, as they excelled in virtually every phase of the game: they passed well, they attacked well and they played stifling defense. The numbers bear that out. Buffalo out-hit the Tigers 0.341 to 0.094, Buffalo out-blocked the Tigers 7–1, and Buffalo picked up 36 digs to 30 for Missouri. The Bulls opened a 10–3 lead over the Tigers in the first set, and maintained the lead the entire way, hitting 0.371 to Missouri's 0.147. In the second set, Buffalo broke open a 10–10 tie and slowly pulled away. The third set saw Buffalo open a 7–2 lead, and Missouri never got close after that. The Bulls made only two attack errors in the set and hit 0.409, compared to Missouri's 0.067. The match began with a good omen for the Bulls on the very first play of the match. Senior outside hitter Stacia Gollogly, starting for the first time all season, was in serve receive formation (something she rarely does) and Missouri served the ball to her. Gollogly made a perfect pass to Buffalo setter Mandy Leigh, whose pass back to Gollogly resulted in a kill out of the front-row middle, a play designed to confuse the defense. Gollogly was successful on this play several times during the match. In the third set, Gollogly made a very smart play to stop a potential Missouri rally. A pass tight to the net and a Missouri double-block looked like it would result in a Missouri point, but Gollogly tipped the ball of the side of the Missouri blocker's forearm, and the ball went out-of-bounds for a Buffalo point. Gollogly would finish with 7 kills. Senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská led the Bulls with 14.5 points on 11 kills, two aces and two blocks. Trebichavská also gets credit for the Play of the Match™, when at 18–13 in the third set, Mandy Leigh set the ball to Trebichavská in the back row. Missouri set up a triple block in front of Trebichavská, but KT's powerful swing went over the block and down for a kill. It was the second kill of the match against a triple block for Trebichavská. Fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh was not far behind in points with 13.5, coming on 10 kills (with just 1 error) and four blocks (3 solo). Senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez had 11 digs. Mandy Leigh had 31 assists. In the second match, against Xavier, the Bulls looked like a different team. They struggled to pass well, resulting in a low hitting percentage, they made a relatively high number of errors, and generally did not look as efficient or smooth as they did against Missouri. A number of times in the match, Buffalo changed their serve receive arrangement to try to produce better passing, with inconsistent results. In the first set, Buffalo hit 0.000 and lost 25–16. Passing was the primary culprit. Buffalo passed better in set two, and took a 25–18 victory, hitting 0.324. The third set went long, 30–28, with Missouri taking the win. The Bulls trailed 15–12, but then ran off seven straight points to take a 19–15 lead, as the serving by Trebichavská produced one ace and took Missouri out of system which prevented Missouri from running their offense. Buffalo had two set point opportunities at 24–22, and another one at 26–25, but the Bulls couldn't convert and Missouri won 30-28. The fourth set against Xavier was a back-and-forth set, but with the score tied at 21, a Missouri kill gave them a brief lead. A kill from Trebichavská and two Missouri errors put the Bulls ahead 24–22 and a kill from fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara ended the set. Buffalo faded rapidly in the fifth set, falling behind 9–2, and never recovered. Missouri hit 0.588 in the set and Buffalo could only manage 0.150. Trebichavská again led the Bulls in score with 23.5 (18 kills, 4 aces, 2 blocks) and Abby Leigh was second with 13.5 points (11 kills, 1 ace and 2 blocks). Senior right side Emma Gielas, who played high school ball in the Cincinnati area, picked up 10.5 point on 9 kills and two blocks. Mandy Leigh had 45 assists. Junior libero Maria Futey had a season-high 23 digs, Mandy Leigh had 14 digs and Lopez had 11. Against Bellarmine, another Cincinnati native playing for the Bulls, sophomore outside hitter Lauren Otten, replaced Gollogly. It was Otten's first appearance of the year, and she had the best match of her career, picking up 8 kills (with just one error), plus two blocks and 2 digs. All of those statistics are career highs. Otten was injured in the exhibition match at Colgate, on the first play she was on the court, but was in uniform for all of the Bulls games so far. The Bulls defeated Bellarmine 25–15, 25–21 and 25–14, hitting 0.400 for the match, their best of the year, while making just 8 attack errors, also their best of the year. Once again it was Trebichavská who led the team in scoring with 16.5 points, including 6 aces. Abby Leigh finished with 14.5 points, including 6 blocks, and Otten was third in scoring at 9.5 points. Other Stuff Abby Leigh was the MVP of the tournament, while both Abby Leigh and Trebichavská made the all-Tournament team. In case I haven't mentioned this in a while, the two Leighs are sisters. Buffalo players who made the all-tournament team: (L to R) Abby Leigh, Katrin Trebichavská and Mandy Leigh In that 2017 victory over Rutgers, Buffalo outside hitter Polina Prokudina had 26 kills, including four in the fifth set, to give Buffalo their first ever win over a Power 5 program. Prokudina also scored several times against a triple block in that match, as Trebichavská did against Missouri. Note: Buffalo has defeated Syracuse, but that was before 'Cuse joined the ACC. In that five-set win over Syracuse in 2011, the attendance at Alumni Arena went over 1,000 for the first time ever, and after the match, the fans came down on the court with the players and line-danced to the "Wobble" song. The playing time for Gollogly and Otten in this tournament was due to the injuries to two other players who had started for Buffalo at outside hitter earlier in the season, grad student Maurine Calande and freshman Manoela Forlin. Buffalo plays next at St. John's, facing #17 Arkansas, Columbia and the host team. Only the final match against St. John's will be streamed (on FloSports). Edited September 10, 2023 by dj_paige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_paige Posted September 12, 2023 Author Share Posted September 12, 2023 Mandy Leigh named MAC East Setter of the Week; and Katrin Trebichavská named MAC East Co-Offensive Player of the Week. For Leigh, it is the second week in a row with this honor. Looking at MAC stats (entire conference, not just MAC East), Courtney Okwara leads in hitting percentage a 0.523, and in second place ... can you guess??? We'll come back to that. Trebichavská is 7th in kills per set. Mandy Leigh is 3rd in assists per set. Trebichavská is 2nd in aces per set. Abby Leigh second in blocks per set; and way ahead in solo blocks per set. Maria Futey 10th in digs per set. Trebichavská second in points per set. So, second in hitting percentage is Abby Leigh. Meaning Buffalo has the top two attackers in terms of hitting percentage in the MAC. SET THE MIDDLES! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue03 Posted September 13, 2023 Share Posted September 13, 2023 16 hours ago, dj_paige said: Mandy Leigh named MAC East Setter of the Week; and Katrin Trebichavská named MAC East Co-Offensive Player of the Week. For Leigh, it is the second week in a row with this honor. Looking at MAC stats (entire conference, not just MAC East), Courtney Okwara leads in hitting percentage a 0.523, and in second place ... can you guess??? We'll come back to that. Trebichavská is 7th in kills per set. Mandy Leigh is 3rd in assists per set. Trebichavská is 2nd in aces per set. Abby Leigh second in blocks per set; and way ahead in solo blocks per set. Maria Futey 10th in digs per set. Trebichavská second in points per set. So, second in hitting percentage is Abby Leigh. Meaning Buffalo has the top two attackers in terms of hitting percentage in the MAC. SET THE MIDDLES! I’ll be honest, I don’t know volleyball stats, and if they’re good or not compared to other schools. In simples terms, what is your current outlook for the season? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_paige Posted September 14, 2023 Author Share Posted September 14, 2023 Can I answer that after this weekend? Then the non-conference schedule will be complete, I think that will be a good time for evaluating the team. My preseason evaluation is that this could be the best year ever for the team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
121Merrimac Posted September 14, 2023 Share Posted September 14, 2023 That sounds like everything hinges on St John’s. It’s difficult to imagine the other two going anything but ‘chalk’. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rma Posted September 15, 2023 Share Posted September 15, 2023 On 9/13/2023 at 10:04 AM, Blue03 said: I’ll be honest, I don’t know volleyball stats, and if they’re good or not compared to other schools. In simples terms, what is your current outlook for the season? Massey ratings https://masseyratings.com/cvol/ncaa-d1/ratings WMU 34 Bowling Green 84 Buffalo 101 Last year UB finished 163 and advanced to the MAC Semifinals for the first time. BG won the conference and finished #75, was swept in the first round of the NCAA tournament by #27 WKU. This weekend WMU plays WKU. Massey predicts us to be competitive against everybody in conference except WMU and BG. https://masseyratings.com/cvol2023/979 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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