The only area in which the volleyball team has remained consistent as of late is in the loss category. The Bulls have dropped four of their last five matches and their struggles continued last weekend.
Buffalo (9-13, 2-6 Mid-American Conference) hardly got anything going against Western Michigan (16-5, 6-2 MAC) and Northern Illinois (17-5, 6-2 MAC), and the Bulls got swept, 3-0, by both teams on back-to-back nights at Alumni Arena.
Western Michigan and Northern Illinois both committed more errors than Buffalo, but they were still in command of the matches. Buffalo was hampered by its poor attack. The Bulls only averaged .070 in hitting percentage for both games to their opponents' .233.
Sophomore hitter Dana Musil led the Bulls in kills for the first time since the beginning of October, but even her performance wasn't too much of a highlight. Musil averaged just 8.5 kills in the two matches.
Musil was highly critical of her own performance.
"I definitely need to work on my offense," Musil said. "I'm a front row player, so I especially need to work on my all-around game. I also need to work on my blocking to become a more complete player and help the team win."
It didn't take too long for Western Michigan to take advantage of Buffalo's offensive struggles. The Broncos jumped out to an early 17-8 lead and kept the lead to win the set 25-16.
After losing the second set, 25-17, Buffalo looked like it was returning to form as it went on a 5-1 run to tie the Broncos at 15 in the third. The Bulls jumped out to a 20-16 lead right after, but they were unable to finish as Western Michigan closed out the final set, 26-24.
The Bulls tallied only four service errors against Western Michigan, an improvement over their 14 service errors in their last match versus Ohio. However, head coach Todd Kress said there is much more that needs to be done.
"A lot of things need to be changed," Kress said. "Talk in the locker room does not correlate to the fight on the court. There has been a lot of talk and very little action."
The pink was out in UB's annual Dig For The Cure during the Bulls' Saturday match against Northern Illinois. Unfortunately for the Bulls, there was not enough blue and white, as the Huskies also dominated them at Alumni Arena.
Northern Illinois hitter Lauren Wicinski was at the forefront of Buffalo's problems. Wicinski, who leads the MAC with 388 kills, had 14 against the Bulls. Northern Illinois rode off of the All-American candidate's performance and took the first two sets, 25-14.
Buffalo tried to salvage a set in the third. In a set that featured 16 ties and six lead changes, the Bulls had a chance to extend the match when they were ahead 19-15.
But the Huskies fought right back to take a 22-21 lead. The Bulls showed a valiant effort to climb back to a 24-24 tie, but they failed to convert on ample set point opportunities to score on set point three different times. This proved to be costly, as the Huskies took the third and decisive set, 30-28.
Kress was very disappointed with the fact his team wasn't able to win any of the four matches during its week-long home stand.
"When you can't protect your home court, there are no positives," Kress said. "Our kids need to learn how to fight. These losses seem to be coming rapidly and frequently as we refuse to change things."
The weekend also featured 12 total kills from senior Abby Niekamp and 30 total digs from sophomore Kelly Svoboda. Sophomore Dani Reinert orchestrated the offense with a total of 57 assists through the two matches, while freshman Alessandra Jovy-Heuser tallied seven total blocks.
Buffalo did manage to win off the court for a good cause, however. The Bulls donated over $2,500 to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute during Saturday's event.
The Bulls will look to turn their season around as they hit the road this weekend for a matchup with Eastern Michigan (17-6, 5-3 MAC) on Friday night at 7 p.m. and Central Michigan (12-7, 5-3 MAC) on Saturday night also at 7 p.m.
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Photo: Courtesy of UB Athletics
