Battling for playoff seeding, the volleyball team finished the regular season on the road against Western Michigan and Northern Illinois over the weekend. The Bulls ended the season on a rough note as both opponents swept them.
On Friday night, Buffalo (14-19, 3-13 Mid-American Conference) lost 3-0 to the Western Michigan Broncos (17-12, 7-8 MAC). The scores of the game were 30-24, 30-21, 30-24.
The Broncos outplayed the Bulls from the beginning to the end of the match. Western Michigan out-hit Buffalo in every game, which included the second game where the Broncos held a .486 to .258 advantage. The final stats for hitting in the contest were .280 to .149 in favor of WMU.
The first game was hard for both teams because there was no offensive execution as each team hit poorly. Buffalo hit .050 in the game, while Western Michigan barely performed better with a percentage of .094.
"We weren't able to control the ball," said head coach Jim Lodes. "We didn't dig the ball well enough to gain control for our attack. On serves, we couldn't pass the ball effectively at times to set up the offense."
Buffalo got a good effort from sophomore Claudia Neba. Neba led the team with 14 kills on 25 swings. She only had three errors overall and finished with a team-high .440 hitting efficiency. Neba was the only player for Buffalo to reach double figures in kills.
Along with Neba, sophomore Alyssa Fitchette contributed to Buffalo's efforts. Fitchette finished the game with six kills on 16 swings with one error and an efficiency of .312.
The defense for the Bulls was led by junior Lizaiha Garcia. She recorded a team-high 10 digs on the evening and was the only player for the Bulls to reach double figures in this category.
Even though the Bulls didn't generate much offense, senior Brandie Clark had 33 assists. She also added three kills and one block assist.
On Saturday night, the Bulls ended the regular season against Northern Illinois. Buffalo again suffered a 3-0 loss. The Huskies took every game with scores of 30-23, 30-22, and 30-21.
Buffalo was able to hang around in every game. In the second game, it was 20-20 at one point until Northern Illinois (20-8, 13-3 MAC) went on a run to extend the lead by five points. In the third game, the Bulls were down 18-15 when the Huskies made another run to widen the lead and take the match.
Going into the game, Northern Illinois had already captured the MAC West title and the No. 2 seed in the tournament.
The Huskies out-hit Buffalo .270 to .160 for the match. Their two seniors, Nikki Morzenti and Jenna Map?(c), led the Bulls against NIU. Both recorded double digits in kills with Morzenti getting 11 and Map?(c) finished with 10.
The Bulls' most efficient hitter in the match was junior Colleen Egan. Egan had a total of four kills on seven swings with no errors, which was good for a .571 hitting efficiency. Egan also tallied three block assists on the evening.
Buffalo got a strong presence at the net by Fitchette. She recorded four total blocks, with two of them being solos. Fitchette also contributed six kills in the contest.
Once again, Garcia was the leader of the defense with 10 digs. Garcia also helped on the offensive side of the match for the Bulls with three service aces.
Buffalo received a solid effort from Clark. Her final number of assists in the match was 32. She also chipped in with eight digs and five block assists.
Buffalo only recorded three serving errors against the Huskies, which was better than Friday's match where they had seven. This was one area where Lodes wanted the team to improve on heading into the playoffs.
"There were parts of the game that we had bad stretches," Lodes said. "We committed too many unforced errors that gave them five or six points in a row. It was a see-saw game, but the girls worked hard tonight."
Buffalo will enter the MAC Tournament as the 11th seed. The Bulls' first game will be against sixth seeded Ball State on Tuesday, Nov. 14. The time of the match is still to be determined.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
