The Buffalo State volleyball team participated in the Fredonia Invitational last weekend, going 2-2, losing both of its matches on Friday only to follow it up with a couple of wins on Saturday.
The Bengals (10-14/4-0 SUNYAC) defeated Mount Aloysius and Pitt-Greensburg just a day after dropping their tournament-opening matches to St. John Fisher and Capital.
The team played a closely contested match against St. John Fisher to kickoff the tournament, losing in four sets 25-22, 23-25, 22-25, 23-25.
“We lost because of our errors at the end of the match,” head coach Maria DePeters said. “We didn’t finish the game strong.”
Middle hitter Allyson Pierce led the Bengals with 12 kills and six blocks in the match. Setter Kelsey Bashore added 30 assists in the loss.
The match showed a sign of improvement for the Bengals. The score was much closer than the meeting the teams had in the RIT Invitational in September, which saw St. John Fisher win in straight sets.
In their second match of the day, the Bengals fell quickly to Capital in a straight sets decision 25-10, 25-10, 25-10, closing out their first day of play.
“Capital is a very good team. They were very aggressive and were blocking balls. We played like we were two steps behind all match,” DePeters said.
The Bengals came out looking like a different team on Saturday.
“I told the girls that it’s up to them to decide how they want to close out the weekend. It has to come from within them and it did, and they played much better on Saturday,” DePeters said of the team’s turnaround.
They opened the day defeating Mount Aloysius in four sets, 25-18, 22-25, 25-19, 25-9. Middle hitter Sam Parente had 13 kills to lead the Bengals. Alexandra Opera added a team-high 15 assists and libero Chelsea Moore chipped in 27 digs.
In the later match, the Bengals held off Pitt-Greensburg in five sets 25-19, 23-25, 25-19, 20-25, 15-7. Parente and outside hitter Ray-Ray Algbedo each had 10 kills. Bashore added 35 assists and middle hitter Sherrell McLean also had nine kills in the match.
“We corrected errors on Saturday,” DePeters said. “We were the more aggressive team. We were blocking balls and running a quicker offense. We learned a lot on Friday and implemented that into Saturday’s matches.”
The Bengals will host the University of Rochester and Medaille for more non-conference play Saturday at Sports Arena. The team currently stands 6-14 in non-conference matches but boasts a 4-0 SUNYAC record to put them in first place in the West division. The 4-0 conference start is the teams’ best in school history.
“We’re very proud of ourselves for turning the volleyball program around,” said Bashore, last week’s SUNYAC Player of the Week. “It’s taken a lot of hard work and practice.”
Bashore added the team needs to practice hard in order to continue to win games.
“We have to work as hard in practice as we would in a game,” she said. “We have to have good practices.”
The next round of SUNYAC Pool Play is at Brockport on Oct. 21 and 22. The 4-0 record is a good start, but McLean said the Bengals aren’t satisfied yet. The goal remains to continue their strong SUNYAC play and win SUNYAC’s.
“I’m really proud of the team. We’ve worked hard all summer,” McLean said. “Now we want to see a banner up there with volleyball on it.”
Tom Gallagher can be reached by email at gallagher.record@live.com.