BUFFALO — The University at Buffalo volleyball team returns home to open a season-long five-match homestand this weekend with matches on Friday night against Central Michigan and Saturday night against Eastern Michigan. The match on Saturday evening will be UB’s Spirit Day match where fans are encouraged to wear purple and help take a stand against bullying and show support for the LGBTQ community.
The Bulls are looking to snap a five-match losing streak, but had one of their better matches last Saturday on the road, a 3-1 loss at Western Michigan. Junior Cassie Shado continues to lead the Bulls offensively as she is amongst the MAC leaders in hitting percentage at .394. She also has 145 kills on the year, which is second on the team behind only sophomore Valisha Watkins, who has 167. Sophomore Megan Wernette is third on the team with 134 kills and she leads Buffalo with 70 total blocks and 19 solos. Freshman Scout McLerran has a team-best 642 assists, while adding 64 kills and 166 digs, second most on UB. In all, three freshmen are UB’s digging leaders as Hannah Watson has a team-high 299 digs and Maddie Torbeck, who missed much of non-conference due to injury is now starting at libero and has 110 digs on the year.
Central Michigan is 8-12 on the season and 2-6 in MAC play following losses at Miami and Bowling Green last weekend. The Chippewas are led by Jordan Bueter, who has 223 kills, while Paige Carey has 138 kills and Laura Wilson is right behind her with 137. No CMU player is hitting over .300 on the year. Kathia Sanchez has a team-high 585 assists and Megan Kern leads Central Michigan defensively with 247 digs. Bueter is second on the Chippewas with 200 digs. Carey is the team’s leading blocker with 68 total blocks, including 12 solos.
Eastern Michigan is 7-14 on the year and also 2-6 entering its match at Akron on Friday night. The Eagles are led by Jordan Smith, who has a team-high 200 kills and Kelly Ferguson, who has 147 kills and is hitting .257 to lead EMU. The Eagles employ two setters as Mallory Rajewski has 416 assists, while Riley Taylor adds 348 assists. Defensively, Alyssa LaFace has 271 digs, averaging just under 4.00 digs per set. Samantha Falco is the leading blocker with 55.
Both matches will take place in Alumni Arena and begin at 6pm. For fans that can’t make it, there are live stats and live video of each match, courtesy of YouTube. Links can be found at UBBulls.com.
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