The Buffalo State volleyball team hosted a tri-match last Saturday, defeating Medaille in four sets and the University of Rochester in five to remain unbeaten at home and improve their winning streak to four games.
The Bengals (12-14) started off slow in the early match against Medaille. Despite a mid-game rally that saw them turn an eight point deficit into a two point deficit, the team fell 18-25.
Buffalo State proved to be resilient in the second and third sets, coming from behind in each to win 26-24 and 25-23. In the first win, the Bengals trailed 8-14, prompting DePeters to take a timeout. Afterwards, the team went on an 8-2 run to tie before going on to win.
“After that first timeout, we told the girls what they needed to focus on and they focused on it,” DePeters said. “It just comes down to mentally turning it on and playing the game.”
The Bengals put together their most complete set of the match in the fourth set, closing out with a 25-16 win.
Setter Kelsey Bashore led the Bengals attack with 42 assists in the contest. Mary Naboi had 14 kills and senior captain Paige Ottaviano added 12 kills and eight digs in the victory.
Going into its match with the University of Rochester, the Bengals knew they had their hands full. Rochester made short work of Medaille in a straight sets win earlier in the day and beat the Bengals in a straight-sets match last month.
“We knew we had to fight hard. They’re a very good team,” DePeters said of Rochester. “We knew we had to play with a lot of desire to beat this team.”
The Bengals started off the match strong. They jumped out to a two-set lead with a pair of 25-19 victories. However, Rochester would come back to tie with wins of 19-25 and 23-25.
Despite squandering the lead, the Bengals maintained a positive attitude.
“We were all pretty excited and just ready to take the momentum back and take that fifth game to Rochester,” Ottaviano said.
Behind a strong defensive effort, the Bengals prevailed 15-10 to win the exciting match.
“Our defensive play was outstanding,” Ottaviano said. “We really came together and knew what we had to do, and our defense really stepped up.”
Libero Chelsea Moore, who had 24 digs in the match, said the team did a good job of keeping everything up.
Ottaviano and Sherrell McLean pitched in 12 and nine kills, respectively. McLean also chipped in six blocks. Bashore again had 42 assists in leading the team to victory.
“Kelsey works very hard every single set, every single match and puts up an awesome offense to lead the team out there,” DePeters said of Bashore.
With the victories, the Bengals improved their non-conference record to 8-14. They boast a 4-0 SUNYAC record. With the second round of SUNYAC Pool Play approaching, the Bengals plan is to round out their game.
“We have to keep working hard every practice,” Moore said. “We have been working a lot on blocking and serve receive.”
DePeters said that playing conference teams can be an advantage.
“(Pool play) goes back to studying film and going over how we can beat our opponents. How we beat them the first weekend and how we can beat them the second weekend,” she said.
The next round of SUNYAC Pool Play is at Brockport on Oct. 21 and Oct. 22.
Tom Gallagher can be reached by email at gallagher.record@live.com.