11-2,1-0MAC
Kent State
4-8,0-1MAC
Head Coach Scott Smith Earns 60th Career Win with Straight Set Victory Over Kent State
9/22/2023 8:10:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
KENT, Ohio – The University at Buffalo women's volleyball team (11-2, 1-0 MAC) snatched their first MAC victory of the season with a straight set victory over the Kent State Golden Flashes (4-8, 0-1 MAC) on Friday evening. The Bulls improved to 11-2 on the season.
Prior to the win, the Bulls were 0-4 all-time against Kent State to open MAC play.
With the victory, Head Coach Scott Smith secured his 60th victory at UB. He's just the fourth UB coach to do so following Peter Weinrich (1975-80, 107-121-4), Robert Maxwell (1981-98, 409-285-8), and Todd Kress (2009-13, 73-81).
UB's balanced offensive attack led to eight players having at least two kills. Emma Gielas led the way with nine kills, as Courtney Okwara had seven. Mandy Leigh had 29 of the Bulls' 35 assists. Julianna Lopez had four of UB's nine service aces, matching her career-high.
Both teams struggled on the attack in the first set. UB edged Kent State in hitting percentage, .111 to .094. Once the Bulls secured a 5-4 lead, they never fell behind. Katrin Trebichavska extended the Bulls lead after back-to-back aces to make it 17-11. UB took the set, 25-20.
The second set had six ties and one lead change. The Bulls never found themselves leading until the very end. Down 23-18, it looked grim as though the Bulls would drop the set. Kent State errors left the fort open for a UB comeback. After an 8-1 run, the Bulls won the set, 26-24. Lauren Otten had two clutch kills to secure the set win.
The third set was dominated by the Bulls. UB outhit the Golden Flashes, .391 to .032. Kent State finished with 15 errors in the set, including five reception errors. Manoela Forlin had three kills in the set as the Bulls ran away with it, 25-14.
"There is always excitement and nerves at play when you start conference matches, especially on the road and I felt that we showed that in our execution early on," stated Head Coach Scott Smith. "We let [Mackenzie] McGuire go off in the second set and that put our backs against the wall, but I was really proud of our resiliency and ability to execute big plays down the stretch win in extra points. We really picked up our serving in the third and that made all the difference for our defense. It's great to be able to start MAC play off with a win."
The Bulls are back in action tomorrow at 4 p.m. against the Golden Flashes to close the weekend.
