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UB Volleyball gets 2nd MAC Victory 3–2 over Eastern Michigan

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Buffalo freshman setter Scout McLerran stepped to the service line at match point, with Buffalo leading 14–13 in the fifth set. McLerran has been the Bulls' best server all year, and tonight her serving was a big reason Buffalo had a chance for the win. Her topspin serve went over the net and took a dive towards the floor. An EMU defender got under the ball but the pass went sideways. A second EMU player managed to loft the ball into the air, and a third EMU player managed to bump the ball back across the net, but the ball went out of bounds, untouched. Ace for Scout McLerran! Bulls win, for only the third time all year, and they are now 2–8 in the MAC.


Scout McLerran

McLerran, the Bulls' do-everything setter, continues to effectively run the Bulls offense, as she picked up 53 assists tonight, and helped the Bulls hit 0.238 as a team, their third highest hitting percentage of the year. McLerran, as she does just about every night, fills up the box score, with five kills and only 1 error, 7 digs, a block, and three aces, plus her serves caused general havoc throughout the night (more on that later).

The previous night, Buffalo had lost a 5 set match to Central Michigan, this one also ending 15–13 in the fifth set. In that close as nails match, Buffalo's sophomore outside hitter Valisha Watkins had been extremely ineffective. She had five attack errors on eight attacks in the first set (which Buffalo would lose 29–27), and was benched for the rest of the match. That obviously had an impact on her, because tonight against Eastern Michigan, Watkins got off to the best start of her career, and finished with 12 kills and only four errors, and she didn't have an attack error until late in the 4th set. If there was a major difference between last night's nail-biter loss and tonight's nail-biter win, it was Watkins, who picked up her game and contributed greatly to the victory.

Buffalo continues to be led by their two middle blockers, sophomore Megan Wernette and junior Cassie Shado, who both stepped up and provided a lot of points for the Bulls tonight. Wernette had 13 kills (and only 2 errors), plus four blocks and an ace, and it was her kill on the slide that broke a 13–13 tie in the fifth set, leading to McLerran's match winning ace. Shado had a team high 15 kills, plus a team high 6 blocks. Both have been very dependable throughout the year, as they are tied for the team lead in points scored over the season at 227.5, while Wernette is slightly ahead of Shado in blocking, 1.03 blocks per set for Wernette and 0.96 blocks per set for Shado. They are the best pair of middle blockers on any team I have seen in the MAC this year.

Tonight, Buffalo also benefited from rapidly improving and consistent play by senior right side Amber Hatchett and freshman outside hitter Rachel Sanks. Hatchett had been struggling for a while because right side is a new position for her, while Sanks was not even getting much playing time until recently. Tonight, Sanks had 9 kills and 2 blocks, while Hatchett had 9 kills and 4 blocks.

Buffalo's back line defense turned in another strong performance, with freshman defensive specialist Hannah Watson recording 17 digs, freshman libero Maddie Torbeck had 14 digs, and Watkins was also in double digits in digs with 10.

The match looked like a blowout in the first set, as Buffalo couldn't do much right, and EMU won very easily, 25–14. The Eagles hit 0.368, more than twice as high as Buffalo's 0.182. No one at that time would have suspected Buffalo had the ability to go five sets, much less win the match.

But the Bulls settled down, began playing better, and they took the second set 26–24, as they out-hit the Eagles 0.353 to 0.308. The Bulls trailed for most of the 2nd set until they managed to tie the set at 16–16 on a kill by Rachel Sanks. That was during a 5-0 run with McLerran serving, where each of McLerran's serves were directed at EMU's leading scorer Jordan Smith, who was in the back row. Smith couldn't make a good pass, leading to points for Buffalo. Then EMU substituted defensive specialist Jaclyn Ruffalo in for Smith, and Ruffalo made a good pass helping EMU end the Bulls' run.

The third set was another nail-biter, Buffalo wound up losing 26–24. In that third set, Buffalo got five kills, an ace and a block from Wernette. Again, McLerran victimized Smith with her serves, Ruffalo came in to replace Smith and this time Ruffalo could not make good passes off of McLerran's serves. EMU brought in another defensive specialist, Alysa Sutton, who was able handle the serve, ending McLerran's serving run. Neither Smith nor Ruffalo was used in serve receive the rest of the match. EMU went to a two-person serve receive formation when Smith was in the backcourt, allowing Smith to remain in the game but not requiring her to return serves. Each of the two serve returners has to cover more of the court, and possibly this was one of the reasons that led to the success of McLerran's match-winning ace.

In the fourth set, Buffalo led most of the way, and won 25–21. On the final point, an EMU attack ping-ponged off two Bulls defenders and was heading out of bounds when Hatchett reached out with one hand and deflected the ball over the net. On the ensuing EMU attack, Hatchett recorded a solo block, to give UB the set.

The fifth set, the Bulls took a 9–6 lead after three straight errors by EMU, and they still led 13–11 when two straight EMU kills tied the set. Then it was time for Wernette's kill and McLerran's ace.

Notes:

  • All three of Buffalo's wins have been in 5 set matches.
  • Buffalo coach Blair Brown Lipsitz got her first yellow card of the season after arguing with refs after they didn't call a lift violation against EMU in the fourth set. The refs didn't call that violation all night long, they were consistent about it. Buffalo would lose that point. On the very next point, a Buffalo attack went out of bounds, and EMU thought they had won the point, but the line judge ruled that EMU had touched the ball and Buffalo was awarded the point. The EMU coaches were very angry over that ruling. I thought both calls were wrong.
  • Lipsitz records the 10th win of her coaching career.
  • One year ago, at Eastern Michigan, the Bulls defeated the Eagles in 5 sets, in a match that was tied 13–13 in the fifth set, just as tonight's match was.
  • Eastern Michigan assistant coach Darcy Dorton was a teammate of Lipsitz at Penn State. Dorton was the 2009 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and in the National Championship match against Texas, Dorton had 13 kills in a five set thriller that Penn State won 15–13 in the fifth set. Lipsitz also had 13 kills in that match.
  • Former Bull Tessa Ooyama was in the audience tonight. Ooyama was a sophomore libero last year for the Bulls, but she ended her career due to injuries.

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