Repeating as defending champions can be a difficult task to accomplish, and unfortunately for the Buffalo State women’s volleyball team, their hopes of reclaiming the SUNYAC championship title ended Saturday with a loss to Fredonia.

The sixth seeded Bengals, fresh off of a first round upset of the number three-seeded Cortland Red Dragons, could not keep their Cinderella story season alive, dropping the final three sets despite winning the first.

“I am very proud of my girls and how they performed throughout the season,” said head coach Maria DePeters. “Of course it is disappointing to not have won it all, but you can’t win every single year and the way they responded to the adversity they were presented with was admirable.”

The first day of the tournament the Bengals saw themselves in a battle against a team that had beaten them two weeks prior. This time proved to be different, as the Bengals managed to defeat their rivals in four sets after losing the first.

The Red Dragons came out on fire, capturing a 16-25 victory over the Bengals before the wake-up call seemed to come into full effect. The Bengals then captured the next three sets in convincing fashion, 25-14, 25-17 and 25-18, respectively.

Up next was a day two semifinal match against a talented Fredonia team that swept the Bengals the previous time these two teams competed. Set one belonged to the Bengals, as they captured a 25-16 victory. Fredonia then came blazing back, and in similar fashion to Friday’s match that saw the Bengals win three in a row to win, the Blue Devils strung together three wins of their own, 23-25, 16-25 and 23-25, effectively ending the Bengals season.

Senior Sam Parente led the Bengals in the final game with 15 kills and nine digs. Fellow seniors Jessica Crooks and Allie Opera added 10 kills, three blocks and 14 digs respectively. Juniors Britt Hallett-Jonathon and Jennifer Cecchettini combined for 35 assists, 23 digs and six aces in the losing effort.

“After a couple errors and a couple bad calls, we lost our momentum, and unfortunately for us all of this happened in the last couple points of the game,” Opera said. “I feel that we were the better team out there but we couldn’t bring our potential together and Fredonia did.”

With the season officially at an end for the Bengals it was time to reflect on the good that happened and say goodbye to its seniors Opera, Parente and Crooks.

“Our Senior Class was so big for us, we will miss them dearly,” DePeters said, “I am going to miss them a lot and they will always be part of history here at Buffalo State, but you realize that you can’t hold on forever, they will always be part of the family.”

The Bengals have big shoes to fill going into next season, but with the stock of this program rising, upcoming senior setter Hallet-Johnathon believes that next year’s team will be competitive.

“We are losing our two best hitters. We have some good up-and-coming hitters with some big shoes to fill,” Hallet-Johnathon said. “This is my first time here so I’m not sure how spring season works but we’re going to have to work twice as hard in the offseason to be prepared for next season, I know we have what it takes to be successful we just have to work for it.”