UB Head Coach Jean-A. Tassy said Friday that his women's soccer team needed a sweep of their final two regular season games to reach the MAC playoffs.
A sweep is what he got, and the Bulls are playoff bound once again.
Buffalo scored a pair of 3-0 wins over Kent State and Ohio over the weekend to move from tenth place coming into the weekend to fifth place at the end of Sunday's games. Buffalo is locked in as the fifth seed and will play their quarterfinal game at Ohio, who they just defeated, on Nov. 5. The Bulls finished with the same amount of points as Eastern Michigan (17) but won the tiebreaker with the Eagles thanks to a 2-1 win earlier this season.
In a strange decision, seventh seeded Western Michigan will not make up their cancelled game against Kent State. The teams could not play at WMU earlier this season due to inclement weather. A WMU win over KSU, who have only 11 points and cannot make the playoffs, would have moved them up ahead of Buffalo and Eastern Michigan in the standings to fifth place.
With a flurry of second half goals, the Buffalo Bulls women's soccer team (6-7-5, 5-5-2 MAC) defeated the Ohio Bobcats (11-4-2, 6-3-2) at home on Sunday afternoon and guaranteed themselves a trip to the MAC playoffs in November.
Although tied 0-0 at the half, three Bulls scored in the second half, putting the Bobcats down for good 3-0.
Robin Aparo scored the first goal in the 61st minute when she took a pass from Lauren West and found the back of the net.
Emily Russell took advantage of the Ohio goalkeeper's misfortunes and put the Bulls up 2-0. Bobcat goalie Michelle Meglaughlin fumbled around with a rebound when Russell came in and tapped it in.
Jenny Dannecker was the third UB player to score as she tacked on another goal in the 84th minute.
Bulls goalkeeper Anna-Lesa Calvert tallied four saves as she recorded her fourth shutout on the season and her second in a row.
On a rain-soaked field at Kent State (6-9-2, 3-6-2), the Bulls pulled out a miraculous win on Friday. Despite being outshot 19-9, UB managed to win the game by a score of 3-0.
They did it behind stellar play from their goalie Calvert. Calvert had perhaps her most impressive outing as a Bull in making eight saves for Buffalo, bombarded by a barrage of KSU shots.
The damage on offense for Buffalo came courtesy of Natalia Crofut, who scored first, followed by West who scored her first goal of the season late in the second half.
Pamela Schneck also scored the first goal of her career, getting one by the Flashes goalkeeper Lindsey Mitchell at the 59:17 mark.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
