Women’s Soccer, Volleyball open MAC play with losses

We’ll cover Rowing, Men’s Soccer, and Men’s and Women’s Tennis in time this weekend, but Friday night saw our first MAC matchups of the year. Unfortunately for Women’s Soccer and Volleyball, both teams lost Friday night, to Ball State and Kent State, respectively.

On the pitch, UB fell to the Cardinals 1-0 to fall to 3-4-2 on the season. Lauren Roll scored for Ball State 10 minutes in on the hosts’ second shot of the game, and from there it never got better. UB was outshot 20-1 in the game, earning only a single corner kick, and Laura Dougall made seven saves. It’s hard to say too much more off livestats alone, but it’s notable to me that Coach Burke went to his subs a little earlier than normal in both halves, especially on the wings.

Burke to ubbulls.com after the game didn’t mince words:

“We were completely outplayed and out coached in every facet of the game. It's on us as a staff to do a better job preparing our players for big games. We will see if we have the character to bounce back and get a result Sunday."

UB stays on the road for Miami Sunday.

In Volleyball, the Bulls fell 3-0, 25-27, 15-25, 20-25, but there’s more to be encouraged by than other straight-set losses. UB nearly pulled off a win in the first set despite hitting .075 but capitalizing on 13 Kent State errors, and improved to hit .242 the second and third sets. Unfortunately, the Flashes also stepped forward on offense and simply outpaced the visitors.

Buffalo twice had set point in the first, but ceded long runs to Kent midway through the second and at the end of the third set. Megan Wernette was excellent for the Bulls, with 8 kills and 5 total blocks.

UB travels to Ohio tonight looking to even their conference record.