0-8
Southern Miss.
11-1
Bulls Drop Five-Setter To Southern Mississippi
9/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
OXFORD, OH – For the second time this weekend, the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York volleyball team held a 2-0 lead, but for the second time, the Bulls fell in five sets to their opposition. This time, it came at the hands of Southern Mississippi, who improved to 11-1 on the year.
The Golden Eagles took the contest 26-28, 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 15-10 as they outhit UB, .231 to .197 for the match. UB overcame an early 7-1 deficit in the first and trailed 13-6 when the Bulls went on an 8-2 run to pull within 15-14. Southern Miss continued to lead 22-18 when a 6-2 UB run tied the set up following a kill from senior Amber Hatchett. The Bulls fought off two set points before scoring the final three points of the set, the final coming on a double block from Valisha Watkins and Cassie Shado.
The Golden Eagles opened the second set on a 13-9 run, but UB went on a 6-1 run, capped off by a Tessa Ooyama service ace. With the set tied at 22-22, UB scored the final three points, which was finished off by a Megan Lipski kill.
However, Southern Mississippi showed why they have lost just once this season, coming back to force a fifth set with identical 25-19 victories in sets three and four. The two teams had the fifth set tied at 7-7 following a kill from freshman Raven Jordan, but Southern Miss scored the next two points and led for the remainder of the match, including scoring the final three points for the win.
Lipski tied her career-high with 19 kills, one of four players in double figures. Shado added 14 kills and just four errors, while Amber Hatchett had 11 kills and freshman Valisha Watkins added 10. Senior Marissa Prinzbach finished with 54 assists, just one off her career high.
Hatchett added two aces and seven block assists as she was named to the all-tournament team. The Bulls had 16.0 blocks in the match as Akeila Lain finished with nine and Shado added eight. Prinzbach completed the double-double as she had 11 digs, while adding five blocks.
Lipski also completed the double-double with 10 digs, while Ooyama led all Buffalo players with 15. With her strong play, Ooyama has already surpassed her dig total from last season.
For the first time this season, the Bulls will finally take the floor in Western New York on Tuesday evening as UB travels across town to Canisius. Match time is set for 7:00 pm.
