Mediocrity and inconsistency are two words that are rarely associated with the volleyball team. However, over the weekend at the Indiana University Invitational, those two traits took on lives of their own as the Bulls were plagued by less-than-stellar play. On Friday night, the volleyball team took on Youngstown State (0-7) in its first match of the weekend. After winning the first set 28-26, the Bulls (3-3) dropped another close set, 27-25, to even the match at a set a piece. In the final two sets, the Bulls showed signs of brilliance by cruising to victory over Youngstown State, taking the next sets, 25-19, 25-18.
The victory would be one of the few bright spots in what was otherwise a disappointing weekend for the Bulls.
On Saturday morning, Buffalo continued the tournament with a match against Southeastern Missouri State (2-5). After winning the first set 25-19, the Bulls continued their strong play in the second set to take a 21-17 lead.
Head coach Todd Kress was impressed with Buffalo's effort early in the affair. "[It was] our best set of volleyball this season," Kress said.
However, the squad failed to put away a resilient Southeastern Missouri team and wound up losing the next three sets by tight margins: 26-24, 25-21, 27-25.
Kress compared the Southeastern Missouri match to the second match against Colgate last weekend, where the Bulls dominated early but were unable to build off of that momentum.
"When you have a team down you have to be able to finish and everyone has to be on the same page," Kress said. "Once we have everyone on the same page, we won't lose those matches."
Buffalo finished the weekend against the host team, Indiana University. After playing furiously contested matches Friday night and early Saturday, the team appeared to come out flat against the Hoosiers, losing the match in straight sets: 25-14, 25-18, 25-12.
"We had a great opportunity Saturday night against Indiana," Kress said. "But we just really didn't take advantage with our approach to the match and the way we played." Although the Bulls struggled, Kress was pleased with the performance of his inexperienced players.
"We were able to take a look at a lot of our freshmen and sophomores in different spots," Kress said. "[That will] give us a better idea of what our starting lineup will be come conference time."
The Bulls have all week to prepare for their next match. They look to rebound at the St. John's Kaiser Classic next weekend. The first match is against Brown (1-2) on Friday at 6 p.m.
Email: sports@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of UB Athletics
