Volleyball Loses Twice at Bowling Green

[dj_paige]

The UB Volleyball team dropped two matches at Bowling Green this weekend, making their record 12–5 in the MAC and 22–7 overall. Buffalo entered the weekend in second place in the MAC, but after the two losses they are tied for third place with Ohio, with one game remaining in the regular season.

In the first match, Buffalo got off to a good start, taking the first set 25–23, as the Bulls looked sharp in most phases of the game, particularly blocking. The Bulls picked up four blocks in the first set, and a number of important block touches to slow down the Falcon's attacks. The Bulls managed to hit 0.353 and held Bowling Green to 0.207 hitting. The Bulls passed well and didn't make a lot of attack errors. The one weakness for the Bulls was serving, where the Bulls picked up five service errors, which allowed Bowling Green to keep the score close.

But then the Bulls failed to do anything well in the second set, hitting 0.000 and losing 25–12. In the third set, Buffalo fell behind 15–11, but then ran off five consecutive points with senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez serving. Buffalo still led 18–17 but Bowling Green scored the next 8 points to take the set. In the fourth set, Buffalo won the first point, but never led again and lost 25–19.

Senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská led the Bulls with 14 kills. Fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara led the team with 5 blocks. Junior libero Maria Futey had 13 digs. Junior setter Mandy Leigh had 29 assists. The Bulls finished with 14 service errors and just 4 aces. Serve receive was poor for Buffalo, and the Falcons picked up 12 aces.

In the second match, weak passing by the Bulls were just one reason why Buffalo dropped the first set 25–16. But Buffalo's serving failed to take Bowling Green out of their offense, the failed to pick up even one block, and the Falcons hit 0.538. The Falcons scored the first 7 points, and the set was never close. Lauryn Hovey scored 8 kills for the Falcons in the first set.

Buffalo played better in the second set, and took a 23–22 lead, but the Falcons scored the last three points of the set, the last one coming when Buffalo's senior right side Emma Gielas's attack was ruled out of bounds. Buffalo challenged that there was a block touch, but the call was upheld.

In the third set, the Bulls led 17–13, but Bowling Green scored the next four points to tie the set. Buffalo still led 20–19, but again the Falcons put the pressure on, scoring the next four points, eventually earning a 25–22 victory.

Trebichavská again led the Bulls with 10 kills (the only UB player with double-digit kills in either match). Futey had 12 digs. Freshman middle blocker Tehya Shaw led the team with 4 blocks (her career high), while sophomore outside hitter Lauren Otten had 3 blocks (also a career high).

Buffalo will play at Akron on Wednesday, November 16 at 6pm (ESPN+) to finish the regular season. Buffalo swept Akron at Alumni Arena earlier in the season.

Other Stuff

Buffalo played the second match without Okwara, who was in street clothes. As a result, Shaw got her first career start. Also absent from the Bulls lineup was senior defensive specialist Hayley Montoya. And freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin didn't play until the third set; possibly due to an injury she had in the first match when she slid into the scorer's table trying to save a ball. These personnel issues forced Buffalo coach Scott Smith to use more of his bench players than he usually does. In addition to Otten and Shaw getting extended playing time, freshman defensive specialist Chloe Brown made only her fourth appearance of the season, and her first appearance in a MAC match. Brown picked up 4 digs and 2 assists, both career highs. 

The MAC Tournament begins at Western Michigan with first round matches on Saturday, November 18. Seedings will be known after Wednesday's games.

 

 

 

[rma]

From looking through past standings, both Buffalo and Ohio (both with 12-5 records) will be MAC East Champions with a win. At least in volleyball, possibly all sports, the conference does not tie-break division champions so the same result for both teams on Wednesday will result in a co-division championship. This is unless something changed since the 2019 volleyball season where CMU and Ball State were both recognized as division champions.

Edited November 12, 2023 by rma

[dj_paige]

My understanding of the tie-breakers for the Tournament seeding:

The tie breakers for tournament seeding have nothing to do with record in the East, or record in the West. Head-to-head is the first tie-breaker. Ohio and Buffalo split two matches, so we go to the 2nd tiebreaker. I believe the 2nd tiebreaker is each team's win percentage* against the top team in the MAC. Since no one defeated WMU, both Ohio and Buffalo are equal there.

Next is each team's win percentage vs the 2nd best team in the MAC. That would be Ball State, Buffalo defeated them twice, while Ohio has at least one loss (I didn't look it up, but Ball State's only 4 losses are two to UB and two to WMU). This would seem to give the #3 seed to Buffalo and the #4 seed to Ohio.

* — I am not 100% sure if percentage is the right word, but I think it is, 0-1 vs WMU is the same percentage as 0-2 vs WMU. If the actual wording says "record" and not "percentage" then I think 0-1 vs WMU is better than 0-2 vs WMU.

Of course, all this depends on Ohio and Buffalo both winning or both losing on Wednesday, and it also depends on my ability to remember the tie-breaker procedure properly and that the MAC hasn't changed it.

[dj_paige]

Ubbulls.com says we are in fourth place, so apparently my understanding of the tie-break procedure is wrong.

[DaBulls99]

Goes out in a whimper. Swept by BG in the MAC semis. Still an amazing year.