Despite a dominating performance from Junior Lindsay Matikosh and rallying deep into the fifth game, the Bulls lost to the Western Michigan Broncos three games to two. Matikosh led both teams with 20 kills and 61 kill attempts.
The Bulls come out of the match with an 8-11 record overall, 0-4 in the MAC. Western Michigan improves to 7-9, 2-2 in conference play.
"We're so close, and we just have to keep pushing and it will be there," said Matikosh.
The series started off close. The Broncos and Bulls traded points through out the first game and WMU took the game 32-30. Buffalo came back to win game two with a slightly more comfortable 30-24 score.
After the first two games, UB and Western Michigan were neck and neck for kills, errors, and kill percentage. Along with Matikosh, sophomore Molly Schrantz had keyed in for 8 kills up to that point.
The Broncos would come back strong and win the third game 30-25. Carman Malone supplied the bulk of the Broncos offense with 13 kills going into the fourth game. Malone is also the Broncos team leader in kills, with 207 coming into the match Saturday.
UB stormed back to win game four by 30-23, the largest margin of the match. UB continually fell behind in the game, but continued to fight hard and tied at 11-11. Western Michigan played Matikosh with two players during the match, and the UB lineup exploded for 11 kills in the game.
"We keep the ball away from Lindsey when they expect her," Kus said. "We have other strong players like Molly Schrantz, Alexis Bouie, Rebecca Ashare. We move the ball around to them."
UB would take the momentum of the forth game into the final fifteen point game of the match, jumping out to an early 3-0 lead. WMU came back strong, however, and jumped on UB 6-4. They extended their lead to 10-7, before Buffalo rallied to tie the game at 12-12. But the Broncos were just too strong, winning the game 15-13 and the match 3-2.
The Bulls lost their fifth MAC game this season and their 46th straight, but Kus sees promise.
"I think the kids smell victory and it's going to happen soon," she said.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
