UB Volleyball Defeats Kent State 3–2

[dj_paige]

The UB volleyball team followed Friday night's 3–0 victory over Kent State with a 3–2 victory over Kent State on Saturday night, making the team's record 12–2 for the season, and 2–0 in the MAC.

In both games, Buffalo's starting outside hitters were benched after struggling in the early going. Friday night, senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská and senior outside hitter Stacia Gollogly were replaced in the second set by freshman Manoela Forlin and sophomore Lauren Otten. Those two replacements played well enough on Friday night to earn the start of Saturday, but after they struggled on Saturday, Trebichavská and Gollogly came back in. Gollogly continued to struggle and Forlin came back in, while Trebichavská was able to put up big numbers off the bench.

If the Bulls are going to have a good chance of making the MAC Tournament and going far into the post-season this year, they need to find somewhat consistent play from both outside hitter positions.

Buffalo was led by fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh, who picked up her season high 22 points, with 15 kills, 7 blocks and 3 aces, while committing just 2 errors, a 0.500 hitting percentage. Leigh also had 3 digs, all on one rally! Leigh's career high is 26 points, set last year at Lehigh.

Fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh

After a strong first set which Buffalo won 25–19, the Bulls fell behind 23–19 in the second set. Although the Bulls would close the set to one point at 24–23, a service error by senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez ended the set in Kent's favor. In the second set, Buffalo's offense sizzled along hitting 0.357, but Kent State shredded Buffalo's defense, hitting 0.400. The Bulls fell behind 19–12 in the third set and never got close.

Facing a 2–1 deficit, Buffalo pulled everything together in the fourth set, opening a 21–13 lead and finishing with a 25–17 win. Buffalo head coach Scott Smith made one other lineup change for the fourth set, taking Lopez out and replacing her with senior defensive specialist Hayley Montoya. Lopez had a stellar performance on Friday night, but was much less effective in this match. Perhaps Smith wanted to take advantage of the energy Montoya brings. This change also meant that senior right side Emma Gielas would serve regularly (she had not served with Lopez in the lineup and serving in rotation 4) and Gielas had two strong serving runs in the fourth set, picking up two aces along the way.

Buffalo opened a 6–3 lead in the fifth set, then pushed the lead to 10–6, and finished on a 5–1 run, with Gielas getting the kills on the final two plays.

Trebichavská picked up 12.5 points, second on the team behind Abby Leigh, and made only 2 attack errors. Gielas had 12 points. Junior setter Mandy Leigh had 46 assists, her season high, helping UB hit 0.278 for the match. Mandy Leigh also had 14 digs. Junior libero Maria Futey had 19 digs.

Other Stuff

Buffalo faces Ohio at Alumni Arena twice next weekend, on Friday September 29 at 6pm, and the next day at 4pm. Both matches are on ESPN+. Ohio was picked ahead of Buffalo in the coaches pre-season poll. Ohio is 1–1 in the MAC this year, splitting two matches with Akron. Ohio also was the #3 seed in the MAC tournament last year, but they lost to Buffalo 3–1 in the MAC quarter-finals.

Earlier in the season, Buffalo lost in five sets to Xavier. Xavier defeated #11 Creighton in five sets on Saturday.

Buffalo leads the MAC in hitting percentage at 0.270 and the also leads the MAC in lowest opponent's hitting percentage, 0.167.

Fifth year middle-blocker Courtney Okwara leads the MAC in hitting percentage at 0.506 while Abby Leigh is second at 0.415. Trebichavská leads the MAC in aces per set at 0.67.

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by dj_paige

[dj_paige]

Big matches against Ohio at Alumni Arena, 6pm Friday Sept 29 and 4 pm Sat Sept 30, ESPN+. Ohio finished last year as the MAC #3 seed, Buffalo was the #6 seed, and Buffalo split two five set matches with Ohio last year, but then in the MAC quarterfinals, Buffalo won 3-1. Ohio picked 2nd in the MAC East in this year's coaches poll, Buffalo was 3rd. This year, Ohio has beaten some top 100 teams (according to Ken Massey) and had a bizarre loss to Akron who is ranked 227; and so Ohio right now (according to Massey) is ranked 127, while Buffalo is at 91. Ohio returns 3 All-MAC players, 6-4 middle blocker Caitlin O'Farrell, outside hitter Carline Clippard and right side Anna Kharchynska. Buffalo has only one all-MAC player, setter Mandy Leigh. Buffalo has beaten two top 100 teams (Missouri and St. John's, plus Colgate which was an exhibition match)