Volleyball Defeats Northern Illinois Giving Them 20 Wins

[dj_paige]

The UB Volleyball team defeated Northern Illinois 3–1, making their record 20–5 for the season and 10–3 in the MAC. The Bulls are in third place in the MAC, two games ahead of 4th place Ohio and Toledo; and their 10 MAC wins ties the program record for win in the MAC regular season (not counting playoff wins), with 5 matches left. This is only the second time in Division 1 that the team has reached 20 wins, the last time coming in 1995.

In the first set, Buffalo ran out to an 8-4 lead, and eventually extended the lead to 19–11, winning 25–18 in a set in which they never trailed. The Bulls hit 0.375 in the set. Buffalo took the second set by the same score, again never trailing. They broke open a 10-10 tie with a 4–0 run that included two aces by fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh. Another 4–0 run later pushed the lead to 23–17, as senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská's strong serving kept the Huskies out of system, and she finished the run with an ace. Buffalo hit 0.500 in the second set.

The Bulls offense cooled off after that, hitting 0.278 in the third set compared to the NIU's 0.361. Nevertheless, Buffalo took a 22–19 lead late, only to see tough serving and blocking by Northern Illinois help them go on a 5–0 run to take the lead. After a Buffalo point, NIU took the set 25–23.

The Bulls offense cooled off even further, hitting just 0.171 in the fourth set, but they held NIU to a zero hitting percentage (with only 6 kills), and Buffalo took the set 25–18, leading all the way except on the first point of the set. The Bulls picked up 4 aces in the set.

Senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská

Buffalo was led by Trebichavská who had 19 kills and just 4 errors for a 0.349 attack percentage. Freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin had 13 kills and hit 0.280. This came one night after the Bulls had lost to Western Michigan, in which Buffalo's outside hitters all hit 0.000 or worse. Fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara had 13 kills and hit 0.556. Senior right side Stacia Gollogly had 8 kills and fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh had 7 kills, zero errors and hit 0.467 (that's not what the box score says for Abby Leigh, we'll come back to that). Overall, Buffalo hit 0.322, their second best hitting percentage this season in MAC matches.

Buffalo's serving was strong throughout the match, and helped the Bulls keep NIU's offense out of system. The Bulls had 11 aces and just 9 service errors, while allowing NIU just two aces. Trebichavská, Abby Leigh and junior libero Maria Futey each had 3 aces, while junior setter Mandy Leigh and senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez each had one ace.

Abby Leigh had 3 solo blocks and one block assist, and the Bulls had just 4 total blocks, which means that Leigh was a part of all of Buffalo's blocks. She now has 34 solo blocks for the season, which leads the MAC by a wide margin. Oddly, Leigh picked up her 30th solo block on October 5th, and had just one since then before the NIU match.

Futey had 20 digs, the fourth straight game for her with 20 or more digs. Mandy Leigh had 50 assists.

Other Stuff

Did Lopez really record a kill? That's what the box score says. But I couldn't remember that play. The box score says it happened in the first set, giving Buffalo a 19–11 lead, but that kill belonged to Abby Leigh. I assume the scorekeeper thought the kill was by uniform number 15 (Lopez) instead of  uniform number 5 (Leigh). So I have adjusted Leigh's attack numbers.

Did Mandy Leigh really take 22 attacks? That's what the box score says, but I simply can't believe that, that's just way too high for a 4 set match, and I'm sure I would have remembered Mandy Leigh taking a huge number of attacks. It's possible she had 12 attacks, which would match her season high (which happened in a 5 set match), but without going through the entire video and counting, I can't say I have evidence. But then did the Bulls really take 149 attacks total, or was that number incorrect too?

Okwara leads the MAC in hitting percentage at 0.459, while Abby Leigh (not using my corrected numbers above) is 3rd in the MAC at 0.383. Mandy Leigh is second in the MAC with 10.38 assists per set. Trebichavská lead the MAC in aces (55) and aces per set (0.6). Abby Leigh is 7th in the MAC in aces per set at 0.39. Trebichavska is 6th in the MAC in points per set at 4.27.

Western Michigan, now 13–0, has clinched a spot in the MAC tournament.

Buffalo next faces Miami (OH) at Alumni Arena on Friday, November 3 at 6pm, and again the next day at 4pm which will be senior night. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+.

Edited October 29, 2023 by dj_paige

[dj_paige]

The box score appears to have been fixed, I dunno what happened.

[BullBoy]

19 hours ago, dj_paige said:

The box score appears to have been fixed, I dunno what happened.

Usually when the matches are on the road, the initial stats come from the home team.  Seems like NIU may have screwed up!