Football is not the only Division I-A sport here at UB. Actually every sport here is D-I besides the club sports. Since this school is a D-I school, one would think that there is a huge student following of the sports here.
Wrong.
This year's 2003 volleyball team is looking for a fan base. Not die hard, rowdy fans that you see on NFL films, but a nice, loyal fan base, which could only help the volleyball squad. In fact, according to head coach Sally Kus, her team plays better when there's a large turnout at a home game. Shocking, eh?
"We love to play at home...we're always a pretty good home team," said Kus.
This weekend the Bulls host part of the Western New York tournament along with Canisius and Niagara that features thirteen teams. The two-day tournament kicks off Friday when the Bulls host North Carolina State and Siena. On Saturday the Bulls will host Boston College and Syracuse to wrap up the tournament.
Returning for Buffalo are captains Lindsay Matikosh and Alexis Bouie. Matikosh was the team's MVP the past three seasons and Kus says that Matikosh has the talent for loftier goals.
"I think the biggest mark for her to try is some all-conference honors," said Kus. "And I think athlete of the year at UB is within her reach."
In order for Matikosh, or anyone else on the Bulls, to receive some conference recognition or even national recognition, the Bulls will have to play better as a team and put some wins in that record which was dismal last year (9-23 overall, 1-17 MAC).
If you asked Kus last spring on what she thought the chances of her team doing in the MAC she would most likely say that they were good. Her tune has shifted however, as the Bulls have lost two pieces of an important part of their game plan.
"We had two big disappointments; one was losing Katie and the other was losing a top recruit to grades," said Kus.
UB also lost a vital recruit who would have stepped up in Henry's spot at libro on account of grades.
"We don't have that position [libro] on our team right now," said Kus.
Kus is hoping for the team to come out of this weekend's tournament more mature and to find some success on the court.
"I want to gain experience and try to get everyone to play but we have to have some success this weekend and unfortunately not just successful playing, but success on the scoreboard," said Kus.
Kus is also looking for some team chemistry to start generating after the non-conference tournaments end.
"We have four pretty big tournaments to develop some team chemistry," said Kus.
And chemistry is what the Bulls will need to garner any hope at being at the top of the MAC this year and even coming out of this weekend's tournament with somewhat of a whiff of success.
Buffalo will have to do so this weekend without Katie Weekley who will be out due to an injury and will not be cleared to play. This is just another setback in Kus' lineup that she has been working overtime on.
"This week we were working on lineups and it's not definitive at all," said Kus.
One thing that will be an advantage to Kus this year however will be the fact that she will have a lot of options on the bench as well as good support.
"Last year I'd look down at the bench and not feel that I had a lot of options to change players and substitute," said Kus.
The new players are going to have be aggressive and communicate well in order to get that valuable playing time and make an impact on the team.
Buffalo's other three tournaments will be taking place at Duke, Central Florida and Maryland Eastern Shore.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
