Volleyball Sweeps Kent State to open MAC Play

[dj_paige]

The UB Volleyball team opened MAC Play with a 3–0 win over Kent State Friday night. Buffalo moves to 11–2 on the season. It was head coach Scott Smith's 60th career win, just the fourth coach in UB history to record that many.

The most memorable performances of the night belonged to senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez and junior libero Maria Futey. Lopez picked up four aces in the fourth quarter to tie her career high in aces and points. But all match long, Lopez served well causing Kent problems, and she played solid defense, usually making perfect passes to UB's junior setter Mandy Leigh, enabling Leigh to run the offense. Lopez previously had 4 aces in a match (all consecutive!) against Youngstown State in 2022. Lopez finished with 8 digs. Futey made some really outstanding digs, especially late in the second set when Buffalo made a comeback (more on that in a minute), and passed well the entire match, again helping Mandy Leigh run the offense. Futey finished with a team high 14 digs, a big number in a three set match.

Senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez serving

Buffalo took the first set 25–20 after opening a 17–11 lead on back to back aces by senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská. While Kent State eventually closed the lead to 22–20, Buffalo would finish the set with a 3-0 run. Nevertheless, Buffalo's offense struggled in that set, hitting just 0.111 with nine attack errors.

Because Buffalo's outside hitters struggled, Smith went to his bench and eventually wound up using all five of his outside hitters during the match, eventually settling on sophomore Lauren Otten and freshman Manoela Forlin to play most of the second set and all of the third set. And although Otten and Forlin didn't put up huge numbers (3 kills each), they made zero errors each, while Buffalo's starters at outside hitter, Trebichavská and senior Stacia Gollogly each had 3 errors. But the impact of Otten and Forlin was not really felt until the end of the second set.

Buffalo had fallen behind 23–18 in the second set, thanks to Kent's outside hitter Mackenzie McGuire, who had 10 kills in just the second set. But with Buffalo looking at an impending defeat, the Bulls managed to #ShakeItOff (it was Taylor Swift night at the MAC Center — can you believe that song is now 9 years old? But I digress...) and Buffalo went on an 8–1 run to take the set. A cross-court kill by senior right side Emma Gielas started the Bull's comeback. Lopez stepped to the service line and made two strong serves, both resulting in poor passes by Kent, and Buffalo picked up two more points (after a nice diving dig by Lopez to extend the rally, Buffalo scored on block by senior middle blocker Abby Leigh and her sister Mandy; and then an attack error by Kent after Lopez's tough serve).

The pass on Lopez's next serve went backwards, leading to a free ball by Kent and a kill by Abby Leigh. On the next rally, McGuire pushed the ball through the Leigh's attempted double block to give Kent State set point, 24–22. Forlin's first kill made it 24–23. Then Forlin's tough serve was passed poorly, McGuire took a hard shot saved by a great diving dig by Futey followed by a kill from Otten (her first as well), and the set was tied. A stuff block by Abby Leigh put the Bulls ahead and after a long rally, another shot by McGuire was followed by another diving dig from Futey and a kill from Otten.

Buffalo took a 4–0 lead in the third set (using strong serving from grad student outside hitter Maurine Calande) and said to Kent State #WeAreNeverEverGettingBackTogether, pushing the lead to 11–2 after a 4 point serving run from Lopez (including two aces). Buffalo increased the lead to 24–12 on back-to-back aces from Lopez. The final score in the third set was 25–14.

Buffalo was led by Gielas, Abby Leigh and Okwara with 9 points each. Okwara, currently leading the MAC in hitting percentage and top 5 nationally, had 7 kills on 12 swings with no errors, so that hitting percentage will go up. Okwara led the Bulls with 3 blocks. Mandy Leigh had 29 assists and 10 digs.

Buffalo plays Kent State again today (September 23, 2023) at 4pm on ESPN+.

Other Stuff

According to UBBulls.com, the other UB volleyball coaches to have 60 wins are Peter Weinrich (1975-80, 107-121-4), Robert Maxwell (1981-98, 409-285-8), and Todd Kress (2009-13, 73-81). Weinrich was the coach when I was a student at UB, and I remember him fondly as he was always very nice to me. Weinrich would go on to be a highly regarded volleyball referee in the Buffalo area.

Buffalo serving numbers for the match: 9 aces with just 6 errors. Abby Leigh had back-to-back aces in the second set, and Forlin added one in the third set.

Buffalo hit 0.273 in the second set and 0.391 in the third, so that's 0.243 for the entire match.

This was only the third match Otten has played in. Calande played outside hitter briefly in the first set; she played mostly at defensive specialist.

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by dj_paige