Olympic Roundup: Women’s Soccer keeps rolling, Volleyball set for Penn State

Women’s Soccer

UB’s winning streak now stands at five after a pair of home wins over Canisius and St. Francis (PA) that featured a budding set piece danger. Both Thursday’s 2-1 and Sunday’s 3-0 victory opened with goals from freshman defender Tess Ford off Gurjeena Jandu corners. The markers were the first and second of Ford’s career. It’s worth noting that Ford and Jandu have played every minute of the season so far.

Against Canisius, the game-winner came midway through the first half as Adrianna VanCuyck converted a cross from Carissima Cutrona, while Marcy Barberic converted on two Cutrona assists in the second half against St. Francis to build the ultimate 3-0 margin of victory.

Cutrona already has 3 goals and 6 assists on the season, while Barberic has 3 and 1. Expect a deeper look later this week at the pair and the deeper contributions Coach Burke is getting from Western New York natives this season. In a separate note, Kaitlyn Walsh, who scored or assisted in each of UB’s first four games, did not play at all on the weekend.

Buffalo’s only match this weekend is a Friday home faceoff against St. Bonaventure. The Bonnies are 0-2-2 against common opponents Youngstown State, Cornell, Niagara, and Canisius, and 0-4-4 overall

Volleyball

UB went 1-2 on the weekend in Arkansas, falling 3-1 to Northwestern and 3-0 to the host Razorbacks before topping Butler in five sets to end on a strong note. Andrea Mitrovic continued her strong start to the season with 51 kills and 5 aces, earning a spot on the All-Tournament team. Kristina Nieves remains a force in front of the net, totaling 18 blocks on the weekend. Each received MAC East Player of the Week honors, as did setter Tia Gleason, who played the entire match against both Arkansas and Butler.

I’m looking forward to this coming weekend, when UB comes to DC to face American, Penn State, and Howard. I’ll be in attendance on Friday evening against American for my first look at the team this season and will hopefully learn more about Gleason’s takeover from Scout McLerran last weekend. It’s unlikely that I catch either of the more lopsided matches on Saturday.

NKU Norse Men’s Soccer

An overtime loss to Wright State put the first blemish on Stu Riddle’s record, but the Norse bounced back with a 3-0 win over Evansville yesterday. Against the Racers, NKU played largely even through regular time that got testy, with four yellow cards in the final five minutes, but were outshot 6-0 and outcornered 7-0 in overtime. Gameflow-wise, Evansville put up similar resistance, but NKU converted on three of their four shots on net, including another for leading scorer Alex Willis. Alex Greive assisted on all four Norse goals on the weekend and now has seven helpers on the year.

Others on the horizon

Cross Country’s annual UB Stampede Invite is this weekend, as is some Men’s Tennis action at Harvard’s “Chowder Fest.”