No stats, no play-by-play, just comments on how each player played, in no particular order, other than the star of the match is listed first.

Freshman setter Scout McLerran: Wow! Holy debut, Batman! I can see why Kerri Walsh named her daughter Scout. My goodness, it didn't take more than about a dozen plays to see McLerran display almost every skill you want to see from a setter, and display those skills at a high level. She began the match with a top-spin serve, the defense thought it was going to go out of bounds, and then at the last second the ball dropped off a table and landed in bounds for an ace. Two plays later, McLerran scored another ace on a short serve. Serving was a weakness for the Bulls a year ago, and short serves were almost entirely absent, so strong serving by McLerran is a very good omen. McLerran then made near perfect sets on a series of plays: backset to right-side Kristina Curcin, backset to middle blocker Amber Hatchett on the slide, cross-court set to the outside hitter, and a pipe set to Rachel Sanks in the back row for a kill. We also saw McLerran attack from the setter position and put up a block, all in the first dozen or so plays. And the solid play continued throughout the match. We saw McLerran attack often and effectively, we saw strong serving and very accurate setting. Did I mention bump-sets? She had a number of very accurate bump-sets. Did I mention digging? In the third set, McLerran dove out of bounds to keep a block deflection from hitting the floor, and put up a perfect pass leading to a kill for her team. I thought that was the play of the match, until in the fourth set McLerran dazzled everyone with back-to-back blocks on Taina Benitez, the first one a solo block, the second one a double-block with Megan Wernette (but I think McLerran got it, alas no instant replay was available).

Freshman outside hitter Rachel Sanks was a surprise to me in this match. Although she stands 5-9, she has a good vertical leap, and she had a lot a impressive kills, including several from the back row. You don't expect to see a 5-9 player effective out of the back row, but she was, and the Bulls set her often in the back row.

Middle blockers Amber Hatchett, Cassie Shado and Megan Wernette were all solid and appeared to be in mid-season form. Shado, now a junior, the team's leading blocker a year ago, was most likely the leading blocker today; blocking is largely timing and positioning and Shado had it working. Hatchett, a red-shirt senior, also seemed quite comfortable after missing almost all of last season due to an injury; she scored often on the slide and blocked well. Wernette also scored often on the slide and was effective blocking. Since you can have only two middle blockers in the lineup at any one time, it would be an absolute shame if one of them sits on the bench this year.

Sophomore outside hitter Valisha Watkins was inconsistent a year ago, and hit the ball out of bounds far too often. We didn't see much of that today, Watkins, who is very athletic, hit the ball hard and picked up a lot of kills.

Sophomore setter Madison Clark was steady and accurate, but she rarely attacked from the setter position, which she played only in sets 2 and 3 (I think she might have had two attacks from the setter position). In sets 1 and 4, Clark played (surprise!) outside hitter, and she used her 6-2 frame to hit a number of attacks over the blockers.

Freshman defensive specialists Hannah Watson and Maddie Torbeck both played solid defense and made a number of very difficult digs. Torbeck started the match with two atrocious shank passes on serve receive (freshman jitters?) and then gradually settled down to play solid defense and make good passes. Watson also played solid defense and served very well, with a lot of deep and accurate serves. A year ago, Buffalo was very weak on their back row defense throughout most of the year — last year Buffalo's back row was often hesitant or unsure who should play the ball, and we saw that in the Blue and White scrimmage a year ago. Today, we saw very little of that, the back row defense looked a lot more solid today than a year ago.

I was not sure what to expect from freshman middle blocker Kristina Curcin, who despite her being 6-2, she comes from a club team that had never sent a player to a Division 1 program. And the first impression you get when you see Curcin is that's she's noticeably skinny. But she jumps very high (Clark says she has a very high touch point) and she attacked well and with a lot of power while playing right side today (not middle blocker ,where she is listed on the roster), blocked well, and had a consistent hard deep serve, which was very unexpected to see from a person who has been a middle blocker.

Two players who did not have a very productive day were freshman right side Allison Boskat and freshman outside hitter Taina Benitez. Although they made occasional good plays, they just were not regularly involved in the offense as much as teammates were at their positions.

Freshman outside hitter Lauren Slavoski was in uniform but did not play. She had a brace on her left knee. Sophomore outside hitter Raven Jordan also did not play, but she was not in uniform.

To summarize my conclusions about this scrimmage, I saw some pretty good serving, I saw few problems with the back row defense, and I saw an awful lot of good things from some of the freshmen. How does this translate into actual game play? Well, we will all find out soon.

Notes:

• First, before the match began, I had a moment of absolute panic (but not related to volleyball). I had spoken briefly to Stephanie Reid, and then sat down to watch the match, about 6 rows behind Reid. Then, I noticed she was wearing a cast on her right wrist. My heart skipped a beat or two and then I went to ask her if she would be able to play basketball this season. She told me that the cast was coming off next week and she would certainly be ready to play when the basketball season began. Whew! Crisis averted!
  
• Did you know Alumni Arena has no air conditioning? I'm guessing it was well over 80 degrees inside. Fans were being used to keep the level of heat down.
• When Madison Clark played outside hitter in sets 1 and 4, the other setter on the court was assistant coach Adam McLamb. Let's just say he has probably had better performances on the volleyball court.
• The Bulls open their regular season on Friday, August 26 at Virginia, and two more games there on August 27. As far as I know, the matches will not be streamed.
• I also met Crystal Oats and softball coach Trena Peel at today's event.
• In that first conversation with Stephanie Reid, I was talking with Allen Greene when Reid walked up, Greene said he thought that Reid was taller than she used to be, I said I also felt that way, and Stephanie said her parents were also telling her that. You heard it here first, a major scoop if ever there was one!