Historic Volleyball Season Ends with NIVC Loss

[dj_paige]

The UB Volleyball team's season ended with a 3–0 loss against South Florida in the first round of the NIVC Tournament. The season saw Buffalo achieve many program firsts, which should not be overlooked despite the loss.

Buffalo lost a very close first set 25–23, in which there were 14 ties, and neither team could ever produce a lead bigger than three points. Buffalo took an 11–9 lead on an ace from senior defensive specialist Julianna Lopez, but the lead wouldn't last, and Buffalo played mostly from behind the rest of the set. The second set began similarly, with Buffalo opening an early 2 point lead at 8–6, but eventually South Florida took the lead, and the Bulls would not lead again. South Florida broke the set open, when at 13–13 they ran off 5 straight points and were never threatened, winning 25–19. In the third set, the teams were tied 9–9 and then South Florida went on an 11–2 streak.

Buffalo never got their offense going during the match, only once scoring three points in a row. The Bulls hit over 0.200 in each of the first two sets, but each time South Florida attacked more effectively. In the third set, Buffalo hit negative, and finished the match at 0.147, while USF finished at 0.329. At many times during the match, Buffalo could not seem to make good passes, which led to ineffective attacks. There were only a few situations during the match where Buffalo got off a strong attack, where the attacker could run up to the ball and have her momentum add to the power of her swing. It also seemed like most of the match USF was attacking in system. Only senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská was able to reach double digits kills with 11. The next best attacker was fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara with 7 kills.

A partial list of program firsts for the Bulls in 2023:

• Co-MAC-East Champions
• #2 overall seed into the MAC Tournament
• two straight years in the MAC Tournament semi-finals
• two straight years in the NIVC Tournament
• 13 MAC wins
• Five players selected for All-MAC honors
• RPI as high as 66
• First ever win over an SEC team (Buffalo defeated Missouri on September 8 )
• First ever sweep of a Power-5 Conference team (Missouri)

Other Stuff

UB Women's Basketball attended the match against South Florida (which was held at St. John's), on their way to a game against Stony Brook the next day.

Missouri would eventually qualify for the NCAA Tournament as a #8 seed. They advanced to the second round. In Buffalo's win over Missouri, the Tigers never scored 20 points in any set.

Colgate, whom Buffalo defeated in an exhibition match, also advanced to the NCAA tournament, losing in the first round.

MAC Champion Western Michigan swept Auburn in the first round of the NCAA tournament (Auburn didn't score 20 points in any set), in which MAC Player of the Year Logan Case had 45 assists and MAC Defensive Player of the Year Andalyn Simkins had 26 digs and 6 aces, all huge numbers for a three set match. WMU lost to #2 Louisville in the second round.

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by dj_paige