The Bulls traveled to Oxford, Ohio this past weekend for a series against the Miami RedHawks. UB won both matches by scores of 3-1 and 3-0. The games this weekend mark six consecutive victories for the team, increasing their overall record to 17-10 and their conference record to 9-6.
The Bulls won Friday’s contest in four sets, 19-25, 25-19, 25-20 and 25-17. TUB’s first set was sloppy, with an overall hitting percentage of .108 compared to Miami’s .278 percentage. The Bulls also surrendered eight attack errors, double what the RedHawks gave up.
Things looked dire midway through the second set. Despite UB taking an 11-8 lead, the RedHawks scored nine of the next ten points to take a 15-12 lead. After taking a timeout, the Bulls seemed to return to the court energized. That energy translated into a 13-4 run to close out the set.
Tied at one set a piece, the Bulls used the third and fourth set to run away with the contest. They only trailed two more times throughout the remainder of the match.
In the fourth set, the Bulls’ hit at a rate of .313 compared to the RedHawks’ .114. The impressive run secured UB’s fifth consecutive win. Junior right side hitter Emma Gielas led the Bulls with 12 kills and sophomore outside hitter Maria Futey led both sides with 19 digs.
The second contest was a clean UB sweep. The Bulls won the match 3-0, 25-21, 25-14, 25-18.
UB did not trail in the match until the third set. Over the course of the match, there were only six ties and two lead changes. The Bulls held the RedHawks to an overall attack percentage of .099 compared to UB’s .257. Miami also committed 20 attack errors over the course of the night.
Junior outside hitter/right side Stacia Gollogy and senior middle blocker Courtney Okwara led the Bulls with 12 and nine kills, respectively. Sophomore outside hitter Katrin Trebichavska added seven kills to her 10 kills from Friday night’s matchup, as the Bulls won six consecutive sets over the weekend.
The Bulls return from Oxford with a 9-6 record in the MAC and with the second longest win streak in the conference behind Ball State (13 games).
With the victories, UB is tied with Central Michigan and Toledo for fourth in the MAC standings. They hold the tiebreaker over Central Michigan after defeating them last week. UB plays its final weekend series next weekend, at home, against Bowling Green. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.
The sports desk can be reached at sports@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
