Kent State University
13-12, 6-6MAC
University at Buffalo
3-22, 2-10MAC
Flashes Get Total Team Effort for 3-1 Road Victory Over Bulls
10/29/2016 10:19:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
BUFFALO, N.Y. – A shorthanded Kent State volleyball shook off a rough first set to defeat Buffalo, 3-1 (16-25, 25-19, 25-14, 25-19), on Saturday evening. The Golden Flashes bounced back from a tough five-set loss Friday night to earn their second road victory of the Mid-American Conference season.
Kent State (13-12, 6-6 MAC) sided out on 16 of 19 opportunities to put their host away in the fourth set and snap a streak of five consecutive five-setters. The Flashes had their best offensive set of the night with 14 kills and a .375 hitting percentage.
"It was a good team effort overall tonight," said head coach Don Gromala. "We felt pretty good about the way we practiced and our focus during practice today, but came out pretty flat. But we had a good response and really controlled the match from that point. A big part of that was our serve. Even though we didn't have a lot of aces, our serving really broke the rhythm of their offense and limited the number of attempts by some of their key players. We started passing well enough to get our pins the ball and Koja did a good job of improving the location of her sets so they Kelsey, Heather and Lexi could move the ball around a little bit."
Junior Kelsey Bittinger stuffed the statsheet and led all players with 23 points. Bittinger posted 17 kills with 4 errors on 38 attempts for a .342 hitting percentage along with 11 digs, 5 solo blocks and 1 ace. Sophomore Lexi Mantas added 12 kills and has now been in double-digits in four straight matches. Making her first start since October 6, senior Katarina Kojic recorded 43 assists and had a team-high 2 aces.
Junior Challen Geraghty paced the Flashes' floor defense with 17 digs. Freshman Claire Tulisiak and senior Maddie Moxley added seven and six digs, respectively.
Kent State begins a three-match homestand to close out the home schedule at the M.A.C. Center next weekend when it hosts Bowling Green (Nov. 4) and Miami (Nov. 5).
