BOX SCORE
KALAMAZOO -- Once again the Western Michigan defense holds strong Saturday night at University Arena in front of 841 fans all sporting pink in participation of Volleyball Cares. Allyson Doyle led WMU with a double double of 10 kills and 10 digs in the sweep of Buffalo (25-20,25-21,25-16).
Junior Michelle Moore led the Brown and Gold in kills with 11, while Kate Corbett had 8 kills. Katie Eberling had 6 kills and 7 digs. Jillian Mitchell led all players with 35 assists, while Caitlin Strimel set the tone with a match-high 19 digs.
"Buffalo came out very aggressive, especially serving the ball, and that took us out of system early," head coach Colleen Munson said. "Eventually, we shored up our serve receive, began passing with much more tempo and were able to get our right-side hitters and middles involved."
The Bulls (5-17, 0-8 MAC) took an early 6-2 lead off of errors in the Broncos' attack. A kill by Jaime Gotham started the swing in momentum for the Brown and Gold (16-3, 7-1 MAC). The Bronco run gained strength with the aid of five service errors by the Bulls. WMU tied up the score at 17-all off an attack error by Buffalo. The Brown and Gold finished the set out on an 8-3 run, fueled by kills from Eberling and Corbett. The Bronco defense held the Bulls to a .167 attack percentage in the first frame. Moore and Corbett lead the attack with five and four kills respectively.
Points were exchanged by the teams back-and-forth with the score tied nine times. Another attack error by Buffalo and a kill by Doyle put the Broncos on a 7-2 run to make the score 23-18. Two more attack errors put the second set out of reach for the Bulls, 25-21, in favor of the Brown and Gold. Again the Bronco defense only allowed a .147 attack percentage forcing the Bulls into seven errors. The WMU offense put up a .310 attack percentage with a 61 percent sideout percentage.
The Bulls took the lead early in the third set with the help of 5-2 run. A kill by Doyle and an attack error put the Brown and Gold within one. The Broncos tied up the score, 6-6, on another Doyle kill and never looked back. With a couple of small runs WMU held on to a 12-10 lead. A kill by the Bulls brought them within one, 12-11, but a kill by Eberling started a 13-3 run that ultimately would end the set and match 25-16. The WMU defense held Buffalo to a .000 attack percentage and a 37 percent sideout percentage. The Brown and Gold put away their fourth consecutive sweep winning 3-0.
For the match, WMU led Buffalo in kills (42-31), assists (39-31), attack percentage (.253-.109), digs (46-35) and tied in blocks (7.0-7.0).
Buffalo was led by Kristen Bignell with 10 kills and seven blocks.
The Broncos are on the road for two consecutive weekends with Kent State and defending Mid-American Conference East champion Ohio the Oct. 24-25, then head to Northern Illinois the Oct. 30 and Bowling Green Nov. 1.
