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VB: Bulls Lose Two Over The Weekend, Drop to 4–8 in the MAC


The Buffalo Volleyball team dropped matches at Miami and Bowling Green over the weekend, teams they had swept earlier in the season at Alumni Arena. With the two losses, the Bulls record is now 4–8 in the MAC, and their prospects of making the MAC tournament have dimmed considerably.

Against Miami on Friday night, Buffalo's offense never really got going, as they hit only 0.115 for the match. They began the match in the 6–2 (two setter) offense which had been so effective in their last outing, against Central Michigan (Buffalo hit 0.305 against the Chippewas). In the first set against the Redhawks, Buffalo fell behind early and with their offense sputtering – Buffalo hit 0.073 while Miami hit 0.315 — and the Bulls would wind up losing 25–14.

For the second set, coach Reed Sunahara went back to the one setter offense that the team had used almost the entire season, with junior Marissa Prinzbach at the setter position. This lineup change didn't seem to help, and Buffalo hit 0.024 and lost 25–17.

Buffalo would have their best attacking set in the 3rd set, where they hit 0.180, their best number of the night but still way below their season average. They also held Miami to their lowest hitting of the night at 0.191. Buffalo would go on a 7–0 run to take a 15–11 lead with freshman Niki Bozinoski serving; and they would extend their lead to 21–16, but then Miami would tie the set up at 24–24. A kill by Buffalo junior Tahleia Bishop and an attack error by Miami would give Buffalo the set.

Buffalo would fall behind early in the fourth set and never got back in the set, losing 25–21, for a 3–1 Redhawk victory.

Bishop led the team with 17 kills and would have a career high and team-leading 29 digs.

The next night, against Bowling Green (3–8 in the MAC), Sunahara unveiled yet another new lineup. Junior Megan Lipski would be the libero for the first time in her UB career. Normally, any athletic player who regularly plays back row (as Lipski does) ought to have the skills to play libero effectively, but her lack of experience would be a question. Bozinoski, who normally plays libero, was moved to serving specialist replacing freshman Tessa Ooyama in the lineup, and this was the first time all season that Ooyama did not appear in a set. Freshman Sky Day would take over Lipski's outside hitter position. Sunahara also went back to the 6–2 (two-setter) offense.

The lineup changes seemed to have a positive impact on the Bulls' play. Although Buffalo would fall behind 12–6, they would come storming back, winning 12 of the last 14 points to win the first set 25–19. Buffalo got strong serving from Lipski (as she has done all year) and Day. Three of the last four points came on blocks by junior Akeila Lain and freshman Cassie Shado. Buffalo would hit 0.273, their best attacking percentage for any set of the weekend.

The second set against Bowling Green saw the Falcons take an early lead, Buffalo would tie the match at 14, but then Bowling Green again would take the lead and win 25–23. The problem with using Lipski at libero became obvious. Her lack of experience seem to make her tentative, and a couple of balls fell to the floor between Lipski and another Buffalo player, as neither Buffalo player made an attempt to play the ball. Some of Lipski's service returns were also weak, leading to points for the Falcons.

Buffalo struggled even more in the third set, and Bowling Green had their highest hitting percentage of the night at 0.321, as Buffalo would record only one block during the set. Lipski continued to show her lack of experience at libero. With Bowling Green leading 8–6, sophomore setter Megan Lin dug a Bowling Green attack way up into the air on the UB side of the net. When the setter has to dig, usually the libero has to come in and set. But even though the ball went way up in the air and Lipski had a lot of time to get under it, she did not, and the ball fell to the floor, point for Bowling Green. Bowling Green would go on to win the set 25-17. At this time, Lipski had only 8 digs, which really isn't much for your libero after three sets.

Sunahara would end the "Lipski as libero" experiment and returned Bozinoski to the libero position for the 4th set, with Lipski returning to her normal position at outside hitter. Buffalo also returned to the 5–1 (one-setter) offense. And although Buffalo would fall behind 17–14, Buffalo started blocking well and serving well and hitting well, and outscored Bowling Green the rest of the way to win 25–20. The last four points would come on a serving run by Lipski, which included one ace. Ooyama would make her first appearance in the 4th set as serving specialist, and the first time she contacted the ball, she got an ace.

So with the match tied at 2–2, coach Sunahara left his lineup unchanged. And the key moment of the fifth set came with Bowling Green leading 3–2. After a long rally, junior Amber Hatchett hit the ball towards the sideline. Bowling Green began to celebrate the point, thinking the ball was out of bounds, but the line judge ruled that the ball was in. After about 30 seconds of confusion, the head referee ruled that the ball was indeed out-of-bounds, and the point would go to the Falcons. A bunch of unforced errors by Buffalo — serving errors and setting errors — didn't help, and the Falcons would win the set 15–9.

One of the big differences between tonight's loss to Bowling Green and Buffalo's sweep of Bowling Green at Alumni Arena was the presence of Bowling Green's 6–3 outside hitter Jelena Sunjic, who had missed the match at Alumni Arena due to injury. Sunjic's height was clearly a problem for Buffalo, as she had 16 kills and hit 0.538, plus four blocks and a lot of block-touches.

Bishop would lead the team again with 17 kills, followed by Lain with 13 and Hatchett with 10. Buffalo would have 13 blocks, with Lain leading the way with 7 and Hatchett close behind with 6. Lipski would lead the team with 15 digs, 7 of which came when she was playing outside hitter. A continuing problem for the Bulls is the relative inability to get right-side hitter Sable Staller involved in the offense. Staller would get just 9 swings in the match, resulting in only one kill.

So with a record of 4–8, and only 4 matches left before the MAC tournament, Buffalo now finds themselves in a three way tie with Bowling Green and the loser of Saturday night's Central Michigan/Kent State match for the 8th (and last) position in the MAC tournament. (Update: Kent State wins in 5 sets ) I'm not going to speculate on what the tie-breakers say (Update: so I'll speculate a little, head to head between Buffalo, Bowling Green and Central Michigan, Buffalo is 2–1, Central Michigan is 1–1 and Bowling Green is 1–2, which would seem to imply that Buffalo is in 8th place right now). Buffalo's remaining matches are at home against Kent State, Ohio and Akron (only 2 MAC wins), followed by a road match against Toledo, who has zero wins in the MAC.

Notes:

  • Against Miami, Ooyama would record her first attack of her career, which also became her first kill of her career.
  • Buffalo plays their next three matches at home, before traveling to Toledo to end the MAC season. All three of these home matches, plus a match against Albany after the MAC tournament, will be broadcast on ESPN3.
  • Lipski wore number 15 while she was libero, and then returned to wearing her usual number 7 when she returned to outside hitter, causing great confusion for the Bowling Green announcers.

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