With two of Buffalo’s starters sidelined, Ohio swept the Bulls taking sole possession of the Mid-American Conference East lead.
Buffalo was without junior outside hitter Tahleia Bishop who had the flu. Bishop led the MAC with 4.67 kills per set entering Friday’s match. The Bulls were also without their starting setter in junior Marissa Prinzbach. Coach Deane Webb said that they focused 30 percent of their practice time this week preparing for the First Team All-MAC selection Bishop and with her out it allowed the Bobcats to focus in more on Buffalo’s second and third attacking options.
“I told our team that we’ll take it and were happy to get a conference win,” Webb said. “The big thing is we can’t attach any kind of emotion to it. This is who Buffalo is tonight and not who Buffalo is normally. We know when we go to play them at their place they’ll be a much different team.”
Ohio took the early momentum when it jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the opening set. The combination of junior setter Abby Gilleland to senior middle blocker Hannah Burkle was on full display early as they hooked up for five kills in the first set. Buffalo never threatened in the first set as the Bobcats held a six to 10 point lead in route to a 25-16 set win.
The second set was a different story for Ohio as it allowed the Bulls to score the first five point of the game. As it has had to do in all of its MAC matches it found a way to battle back into the set as the Bobcats would go on an 8-3 run to tie the set up at eight all. After trading the next few points, Ohio would slowly gain control as it pulled away for a 25-17 victory.
“This has been a trend as of late, but what was good about this set was that it only lasted about four points,” Webb said. “We had a couple of early errors and if you look at those first two sets in those conference matches it was sparked by our errors, hitting balls out of bounds, serving errors, etc.”
Coming into Friday night’s game, the Bulls lead the conference in blocks and opponents attacking percentage. The Bobcats toped them in both of those categories tallying 14 blocks and limiting Buffalo to a .090 attack percentage.
Ohio’s servers were also able to get the Bulls offense out of system. They also recorded six aces on the night three of which came from the hand of freshman outside hitter Jaime Kosiorek.
Kosiorek also lead the team in kills with 11 as she provided the offense the Bobcats needed to close out the final two sets. Senior outside hitter Kelly Lamberti tallied 10 kills in the game as she only recorded two attacking errors on the night.
“I think we were focused the entire match and obviously there were some girls that were out on Buffalo today,” Lamberti said. “So we just had to focus more to get the win.”
