dj_paige Posted October 22, 2023 Share Posted October 22, 2023 (edited) Facing Ball State a second time this weekend on Saturday afternoon, the UB Volleyball team again defeated the Cardinals in 5 five sets. These two wins put Buffalo into second place in the MAC standings, and they will have an opportunity next weekend to earn the tiebreaker with first place Western Michigan, if they defeat Western Michigan at Kalamazoo. Buffalo has never been as high as second place in the MAC standings in the second half of the season. The Bulls are now 19–4 and 9–2 in the MAC; they have a chance to demolish the program record of 10 wins (set in 2018 and again last year) during the MAC season (not counting tournament wins) with 7 matches still to be played. Buffalo and Ball State played a marathon first set. The Bulls fell behind early 10–5, but came back to tie the score many times. They never led until 28–27 when senior middle blocker Abby Leigh picked up a kill. By this time, the Cardinals, who normally use a lot of defensive specialists in their back row, had run out of substitutions (the NCAA allows 15 substitutions per set) and now their front row players had to play out of position in the back row, and Ball State's leading scorer Aniya Kennedy wasn't even on the court. But the Bulls couldn't capitalize. Buffalo wound up with 6 set point chances, the last coming on a kill by senior right side Stacia Gollogly to make the score 33–32. But by now Buffalo was also out of substitutions, and Gollogly had to serve for the first time all season. Her serve was long, tying the set again. Gollogly would atone for that error later. An attack error by UB and then a mis-connection between junior setter Mandy Leigh and her sister Abby ended the set 35–33 in Ball State's favor. Buffalo's senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská had 9 kills in the first set, but Buffalo essentially gave away this set with five service errors, compared to just 1 for Ball State. The Bulls opened up a big lead in the second set and never trailed, taking the set 25–19, hitting 0.324 and holding Ball State to 0.237. Ball State took control of the third set and won 25–17, hitting a ridiculous 0.667 with zero errors in the set. By this time, Gollogly had 10 kills, a very strong performance, but I don't think anyone expected Gollogly to go absolutely berserk in the next two sets. In the fourth set, Gollogly picked up another 10 kills. Normally, Gollogly rotates into the front court in rotation 1 (when Mandy Leigh serves) and rotates out three rotations later when senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez comes in to serve and play back row. Gollogly came in with score tied 9–9, already having one kill in the set, and what did she do in those three rotations? Three kills before rotating out. Later, she came in with Buffalo trailing 19–17, and what did she do in those three rotations? Five more kills, four of them consecutive, to give the Bulls a 24–21 lead and after a Ball State point, Gollogly ended the set with her sixth kill of those those three rotations. For those of you keeping score at home, that was 6 kills by Gollogly in a span of 11 plays. What happened? All of Gollogly's kills were cross-court, I don't think there was a single one down the line; many untouched by the defense, almost all against a single block that Ball State was using against her. The Cardinals' middle blockers were so worried about Buffalo's middle blockers, Abby Leigh and fifth year Courtney Okwara (second in the NCAA in hitting percentage at the start of the weekend), that the Cardinals blockers committed to staying with Leigh or Okwara, and by the time they realized the ball was going to Gollogly, it was too late for them to get over and affect the play. Mandy Leigh's job in that case, was to get the ball to Gollogly, which she did nearly flawlessly, and Gollogly had no trouble attacking against the single block. Senior right side Stacia Gollogly In the fifth set, Buffalo broke a 6–6 tie with kills by Okwara and Gollogly. At 9–8, another kill by Gollogly was followed by an ace from Buffalo libero Maria Futey, and then another kill by Gollogly made the score 12–8 in favor of Buffalo. One more kill by Gollogly before she rotated out pushed the Buffalo lead to 13–10. A setter dump from Mandy Leigh gave Buffalo match point, and after two Cardinal points, the Leigh sisters connected on a slide kill from Abby to end the match. Gollogly's 24 kills were a new career high, demolishing her previous career high of 15, set when she was a sophomore. She had only 3 errors against Ball State, for an eye-popping hitting percentage of 0.457. Mandy Leigh, whose career high in assists stood at 59 on Friday morning, set a new career high with 60 in the first match on Friday against Ball State, and then she picked up yet another new career high with 74 assists, helping Buffalo finish with a 0.322 team hitting percentage. Those 74 assists is the most by any player in the NCAA this year. Abby Leigh had 16 kills and 1 error for a 0.484 hitting percentage. Okwara had 11 kills and 4 blocks. Trebichavská had 19 kills, two aces and a solo block, plus 15 digs. Mandy Leigh had 5 kills with no errors, plus 12 digs. Futey led the team with 21 digs and also led the team with 3 aces. Whew! Other Stuff The second place Bulls (how's that sound?) will face MAC leader Western Michigan Friday night in Kalamazoo (6pm, ESPN+), a win would give them the tie-breaker over Western Michigan, but Buffalo would still trail WMU in the loss column. On Saturday, Buffalo stay on the road at Northern Illinois (5pm ESPN+). Prior to this weekend, Buffalo's all time record against Ball State was 1 win and 29 losses, that only win coming in 2010. The Play of the Match™ belongs to Futey. With Buffalo leading 10–9 in the fourth set, an attack by Ball State's Marie Plitt ricocheted sideways off freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin toward the scorer's table. Futey chased it down and diving into the base of the scorer's table, was able to pop the ball up with one hand. Trebichavská pushed the ball over, and then the following Cardinals attack was blocked by Gollogly. The ESPN post-match interview includes interviews with Buffalo Coach Scott Smith and Gollogly, who seemed a little overwhelmed as she walked toward the interview. Edited October 23, 2023 by dj_paige 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_paige Posted October 26, 2023 Author Share Posted October 26, 2023 (edited) Updated NCAA statistics, Courtney Okwara still 2nd in the nation and 1st in the MAC in hitting percentage. Abby Leigh top 43rd in the nation in hitting percentage and 3rd in the MAC. Trebichavská 2nd in the nation and 1st in the MAC in aces. UB RPI up to 70; it was up to 66 a few weeks earlier. Edited October 26, 2023 by dj_paige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BullBoy Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 3 hours ago, dj_paige said: Updated NCAA statistics, Courtney Okwara still 2nd in the nation and 1st in the MAC in hitting percentage. Abby Leigh top 43rd in the nation in hitting percentage and 3rd in the MAC. Trebichavská 2nd in the nation and 1st in the MAC in aces. UB RPI up to 70; it was up to 66 a few weeks earlier. RPI can take a huge jump if the Bulls can pull off the road win at Western Michigan tomorrow night. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue03 Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 Regardless of how the rest of season and MAC tournament go, this is still a historic bulls team and a positive sign for the future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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