The UB Volleyball team played four matches in a spring tournament yesterday, and came away with one win, one loss and two ties (each match is two sets long, that's how ties can happen). Buffalo defeated Daemen, tied Colgate and LeMoyne, and lost to Syracuse.

First, some comments on the roster. This is essentially the same team that played in the fall, except for Cassie Shado, who is a senior and not eligible for spring volleyball. Of course, Shado was the team's best player and an all-MAC honoree, so that is a significant loss.

Two other players who didn't play a lot in the fall were not present at the spring matches, and I believe no longer on the roster. One is Valisha Watkins, who led the team in kills two years ago, but only played in three matches and did not record a kill in the fall last year. The other player who was not present is backup setter Vanessa Marinelli, who appears to have transferred to James Madison (according to her Twitter and Instagram profiles), which is closer to her home in Leesburg, VA.

I was hoping to see 6-4 freshman right-side attacker Marija Babic play for the first time. Babic missed the fall season due to injury, and was present at the spring tournament, but not in uniform. I don't know if it's the same injury or a different one, or perhaps not an injury at all. In the fall, Buffalo struggled all year at Babic's position, using mostly players who were 5-9 or 5-10.

Buffalo started slowly against Daemen, trailed 4–1, didn't get in system until the 7th point, but from then on Buffalo looked strong, and won the two sets easily. Outside hitter Polina Prokudina was particularly sharp. Buffalo played a relatively even first set against Colgate, winning 25–23, and then with a different lineup, Buffalo lost the second set 25-17. In that second set (as it was against Daemen too), Prokudina and Buffalo's other starting outside hitter Andrea Mitrovic were replaced by Lauren Slavoski and Rachel Sanks.

Syracuse was clearly the tallest team in the tournament, and Buffalo struggled against the Orange's height. Even with Mitrovic and Prokudina playing both sets, Buffalo lost 18–25 and 16–25. It should be noted that Syracuse advanced to the Women's Volleyball NIT in the fall. Against LeMoyne, Buffalo split the two sets 12–15 and 15–12, with the Sanks/Slavoski lineup getting the win in the second set. The sets against LeMoyne went only to 15 points because LeMoyne only brought 7 players.

Some other comments:

• Raven Jordan looked sharp at the right-side position, where she struggled last year. Jordan put down some laser-beam kills, and picked up a few blocks as well.
• Prokudina, who played her freshman year at Syracuse before transferring to Buffalo, had a happy re-union with her former Syracuse teammates and coaches between the matches. Early in the first set against Syracuse, the Orange set up a triple block against Prokudina, but she found an opening and scored the kill.
• Buffalo coach Blair Brown Lipsitz is expecting a baby. Congratulations to her and her husband Max.
• Setter Scout McLerran seemed sharp, except she picked up a lot of ball handling errors (I'm going to guess she had 8 in the four matches), very unusual for her. In the fall, she had 32 ball handling errors in 28 matches.
• Something we rarely see (maybe we have never seen this): on one play, the ball ricocheted off two Buffalo players, went high into the air in the direction of McLerran, and McLerran took a full swing and buried a cross-court kill. Huge smile from McLerran. I can't remember seeing McLerran take a full swing since she arrived at Buffalo, that simply isn't her job; although she did play right-side attacker in high school.
• Buffalo plays Canisius and Niagara on Saturday, April 14, at 10am at Alumni Arena.