After missing the playoffs last season and losing 11 of their players, the Buffalo State volleyball team is hoping to have a bounce-back season. However, that has not been the case so far.

After starting the season off at 1-3, Buffalo State picked up their second win by defeating D’Youville in four sets. The Bengals (2-6) started off strong by winning the first two sets, 25-16. The Spartans came back to win a close third set, but Buffalo State struck back to win the fourth set and secure the victory.

Freshman middle hitter Lauren Hansen led the box score with 17 kills. Freshman setter Meg Brandon had 31 assists and sophomore defensive specialist Victoria Rigler had 15 digs. Junior middle hitter Allie Harford helped out the scoring with four kills, two aces and 11 digs.

“It’s really important to stay positive when we’re together and go as hard as you can,” Hansen said. “If one of us messes up, we have to pick each other up and go out there and finish each game strong.”

Head coach Maria DePeters was impressed with the team’s performance and is excited to see how the season turns out. She believes that the offense is connecting together, but the quick attacks need to be better.

“Every match we’ve played we have improved,” DePeters said. “The first match we had no sets, the second match we won one, the third match we won two, the fourth match we took a win and now we just won back to back.”

This past weekend, the women’s volleyball team traveled to Potsdam and Canton to play in the Potsdam Invitational. On Friday, they went to Potsdam and lost the opening match to SUNY Canton in straight sets.

Buffalo State was not able to get things going, piling up 17 errors and posting a 12 percent hitting percentage. Hansen led the way with 10 kills and nine digs while junior outside hitter Riley Chapman racked up nine kills, three aces and two blocks. Brandon helped out with 18 assists.

The Bengals also faced Cégep André-Laurendeau, a volleyball team of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association. Buffalo State lost in straight sets. However, exhibition matches don’t affect their record.

On Saturday, the Bengals went to Canton as they lost both of their matches to St. Lawrence and Kean in straight sets.

In game one against St. Lawrence, the errors came back to haunt Buffalo State as they piled up 18 of them. They also had just a nine percent hitting percentage. Hansen led the way again with 10 kills and six digs. Rigler picked up 13 digs while Brandon had 25 assists.

In game two against Kean, The Bengals lost to a very strong, experienced team who was coming into this game at 6-1. Kean ended up with 34 kills whereas Buffalo State only had 20. They were able to get the errors down to five, but were unable to get any momentum going.

Lauren Hansen only came up with six kills and 15 digs. Freshman outside hitter Dana Mancuso, Harford and Chapman each had four kills while Meg Brandon had 16 assists and 11 digs. Rigler also chipped in with 14 digs.

The women’s volleyball team has yet to face anyone in SUNYAC play.

Nine of 14 players are freshman. DePeters realizes this team is a project.

“It’s really hard to start as many freshman as we do to play against college-level teams,” DePeters said. “We know about 30 percent of the game, so we have a lot more growing to do, but it’s great because the girls work really hard.”

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