Digging deep for a MAC win

The Great Lake State served UB volleyball both a win and a loss last weekend as it went 1-1 in conference match-ups.

The Bulls faced off against Eastern Michigan University on Friday and lost in three sets, but bounced back on Saturday and earned a Mid-American Conference victory in four sets over Central Michigan University.

The Bulls (10-16 overall, 2-10 MAC) fell quickly to the MAC West Division-leading Eagles in three straight sets by scores of 30-24, 30-24 and 30-21. The loss came in spite of a good day for junior Lauren Burd, who finished with a .609 hitting percentage and career-high 15 kills.

"EMU is a good team and they ran the slide well against us," said junior outside hitter Jenna Map?(c). "They established their middles, had solid outsides, and we just had a hard time with them."

While the Bulls led early in the first game by a score of 7-6, Eastern Michigan managed to deliver two 3-0 runs throughout the game to pull away.

The Eagles used the momentum from the first game victory to run out to a 10-2 early lead in game two. However, thanks in part to four kills from Burd, the Bulls made a 9-1 run to make the game competitive.

Mental mistakes eventually led to UB's downfall as three straight attack errors gave the Eagles a 26-21 lead and eventual 30-24 victory.

"I think it was everyone struggling to stay consistent," Map?(c) said. "Some were playing well while others struggled at times so it was hard to come together mentally through all of that."

In game three it was back-and-forth action as the two teams were at one point tied at 8-8. Unfortunately, EMU used a 6-0 run and two late 4-0 runs to coast to a 30-21 victory.

"I think we definitely could have played much better against EMU but we just couldn't put our blocking game together as well as we did at CMU," Map?(c) said.

The Central Michigan game was a different story for the Bulls as it got double-doubles from five different players and overtook the Chippewas (3-19, 0-12 MAC) in four games by scores of 30-25, 30-24, 29-31 and 30-23.

"With the problems we had at EMU, everyone knew that we had to turn it around the next day," Map?(c) said. "I think going into the CMU game, everyone had the same mentality that we belonged in that gym. At CMU we focused on our game more, letting the other team make errors while just focusing on playing our game the best we could."

The Bulls started out slow as they fell behind 5-2 early in game one, but they came back with a 4-1 run to tie the game at six. The game went back and forth as the lead changed hands four times before UB finally pulled away to a 23-18 lead.

Central Michigan managed to close the gap back to 26-25, but kills from Map?(c) and Weekley, combined with two CMU attack errors, gave the Bulls the victory.

Game two was more of the same as the teams teeter-tottered for the lead. Central Michigan put together an 8-3 run to go up 18-13 but, thanks to three kills from junior Brandie Clark, UB put together a run of its own and regained the lead at 22-20. UB later won the game on a service ace from Map?(c).

The Bulls led for most of game three but the Chippewas stayed close. With the score 27-26, UB began to fall into a trap that has plagued the team many times this season as an attack error to give CMU the momentum. The Bulls then committed two more attack errors as Central Michigan kept the match alive with a 31-29 win.

The Bulls charged back from the loss in a never-say-die effort, earning an early 8-2 lead in the fourth game. Even when Central Michigan stormed back to take a 15-13 lead, UB showed its determination and answered CMU with a 7-1 run. A third unbalanced scoring streak of 5-1 proved to be the difference as the Bulls moved to their first conference road win since Nov. 14, 2003.

"I think it helped boost our confidence, especially going into the next two weekends at home," Map?(c) said. "Being near the end of the regular season, it's important to get those wins and improve our record."

Clark had a career-high 15 kills to go along with 11 digs and six blocks, while Map?(c) had her own career high with 21 digs. Morzenti and Brown also had double-doubles with 14 kills and 11 blocks and 58 assists and 13 digs, respectively. Burd chipped in to the team effort with a match-high seven blocks.

Buffalo now comes home for a stretch of four home matches, beginning with Toledo on Thursday night at 7 p.m. The match will be held at Alumni Arena and will be broadcast live on WLVL 1340AM.