This past week, the volleyball team dropped two more games to extend their losing streak to 13.

Last Tuesday, the Bengals traveled to Rochester to face Nazareth College. They weren’t able to gain any momentum throughout the match as they lost in straight sets.

The Bengals were only able to record 18 kills while the Golden Flyers racked up 38. Buffalo State also piled up 22 errors and had a negative hitting percentage.

Freshman outside hitter Lauren Hansen led the way with seven kills and four digs. Freshman middle hitter/right side hitter Emilie O’Brien had four kills. Sophomore setter Katherine Marte had 17 assists.

The last time the volleyball team had a 12-game losing streak was back in 2007. In that year, the Bengals ended up with an overall record of 7-30.

On Thursday, the Bengals were set to go up against Houghton in their final home game of the season. There was a big crowd on hand, but it wasn’t enough as the Bengals lost in straight sets.

The Highlanders looked strong and took the first two sets. The Bengals were able to grab the lead in the beginning of the third set, but Houghton came back and won the final set, 25-15.

The offense proved to be the killer in this game, as the Bengals racked up only 18 kills and had another bad performance in the hitting percentage department.

“If our setting is on, our hitters aren’t there and then if our hitters are ready, our setting isn’t on,” said Buffalo State head coach Maria DePeters. “We’re having a huge offense disconnect and it has to get better.”

Freshman Bryanna Fisher led the way with five kills and one block. Junior outside hitter and Junior outside hitter  Riley Chapman had five kills, nine digs and two assists.

Freshman right side hitter/defensive specialist Hanna Cormier helped out with 12 digs and two assists.

“We just got to get together and execute everything as one and not just have parts of the team on and other parts off,” Cormier said. “We’re all young, so we got time to get better.”

With these two loses the team is now 5-20 overall and 0-6 in SUNYAC play. After dropping both games last week, DePeters said there is improvement coming from the defense.

“I think our defense is starting to get back to where our defense was a few years ago,” DePeters said. “I think we have a lot of really good defensive players and also our blocking is starting to get better.”

Cormier mentioned how tough this season has been so far, but feels the team has a lot of potential.

“We come in with nobody really knowing each other and nobody knowing how we play together,” Cormier said. “Everything is just different; we’re not used to any of it. Playing at the college level is a lot more intense, but you get used to it after a while.”

The next couple of games will be a tough challenge for the volleyball team. They will face Medaille on Wednesday and then will travel to Cortland to conclude their final round of SUNYAC conference play.

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Twitter: @Jacob_Fyock