The UB women's volleyball team wrapped up competition at the Montana State Volleyball Tournament over the weekend, walking away with a 1-3 record and a player being selected to the All-Tournament Team.
UB winless on day one
Buffalo (4-5) did not win a single game in either of their matches on the first day of the Montana State Tournament. They were first swept first by Boise State, and then again by Montana State.
Boise State swept the Bulls (4-5) and put up game scores of 30-22, 30-19, and 30-16. Molly Schrantz led the Bulls with five kills, seven digs and three blocks while freshman Tammy Jul?(c) recorded four kills and three blocks.
Later that evening the Bulls fell to host Montana State by scores of 30-23, 30-20, and 30-17. Sophmore Nikki Morzenti put up nine kills and three blocks while sophomore Lauren Burd posted a match-high six blocks and five kills.
Bulls split on day two
The team split the final two matches of the Montana State Invitational, beating Dartmouth 3-2 and then falling three straight games to the University of Portland in the nightcap.
Dartmouth came into the match against UB looking for their first win of the tournament. They failed to win a single game against Portland and Montana State.
The first game was played very evenly with Dartmouth taking it 30-26. UB bounced back to record victories in the second and third games. Dartmouth rebounded for one more win in the fourth game, but was unable to close UB out in the final set of the match; UB escaped with a narrow 3-2 victory, improving their record to 4-5 on the season.
"I was really proud of the girls for the confidence and perseverance they showed against Dartmouth," said UB head coach Sally Kus. "We were down 1-8 in the last game and we came back and won. It was truly a great coaching experience."
Five players tallied double digits in kills for the Bulls against Dartmouth: Nikki Morzenti set a new career-high with 25 kills, Katie Weekley 15 kills and a match-high 9 blocks, Molly Schrantz recorded 16 kills and 11 digs, Tammy Jul?(c) posted 12 kills and 15 digs and Lauren Burd had 11 kills and 4 blocks.
Amy Brown set a new career-high in assists with 68 in the match. She also posted 13 digs.
The Bulls lost in straight games 30-18, 30-10, and 30-23 in the nightcap against Portland. Morzenti recorded 9 kills during the match and had a team-high 6 digs on the night. Weekley had 5 kills and 3 blocks in the match. Burd tallied 5 kills and a match-high 6 blocks against Portland.
"Portland is a very seasoned team; they have a more developed program. Other teams are able to balance the court better than us because their older girls have court maturity," Kus said. "We start one senior and a couple of freshmen, so we lacked the court maturity that they had."
Freshman Lizaiha Garcia was selected to the All-Tournament team after posting an average of 3.57 digs per game in the tournament.
"Lizaiha was strong all tournament, she kept us in rallies that we wouldn't have been in," Coach Kus stated.
The Bulls return to action against Niagara at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 15th.
