Volleyball hits on all cylinders, tops BU

Emerging 2-1 from the University Athletic Association Round Robin Tournament at Carnegie Mellon University this past weekend, the volleyball team went on to roll over SUNY Buffalo Tuesday night and improved their overall record to 14-5.After the first of two UAA Round Robin Tournaments, the Yellowjackets are tied with Emory for third place.Rochester defeated Case Western Reserve University 30-25, 30-24 and 30-22 on Oct. 2.Senior Grace Kraay had 29 digs against Case Western and ended up with 79 total digs for the weekend. Junior Kate Czarniak added 15 kills and contributed 30 total for the weekend.The Yellowjackets went on to beat Brandeis Univeristy in close sets 30-28, 30-27 and 30-24 on Oct. 3. Junior Haley Massa and sophomore Susan Johnson had 11 and 21 kills, respectively.Taking on the defending national champions, Rochester lost in four games to Washington University in St. Louis 30-25, 18-30, 17-30 and 26-30. Senior Kristin Vogt had 16 of her 29 kills and five of her 13 blocks for the weekend against Washington.Johnson acknowledged that while Washington proved to be a tough opponent, the Yellowjackets played well and will only use that game to further develop the team.”We are going to use the Washington University game as a learning experience,” Johnson said. “We are looking to take that four-game loss and improve on the mistakes we made and set goals for the rest of the season.”Rochester continued their hard play to Tuesday night, where they squashed Buffalo 3-0 for the second time this season. Rochester won 30-17, 30-20 and 30-16. Johnson had 12 kills and six digs. Senior Liz Loveless had 36 assists and 4 digs. Loveless was also named the Women’s Volleyball Player of the Week by the New York State Women’s Collegiate Athletic Association for her contributions this past week. Loveless broke the 4,000-assist mark in a match against Ithaca College on Sept. 28. In the Round Robin Tournament, she had a total of 50 digs, with 22 against Brandeis, and 143 assists,with 45 against the defending champions. For the entire season, Loveless averages 10.87 assists per game. With a career total of 4,128 assists, she needs only 114 to break the current career-assist record of 4,241. With only a few weeks left in the season, Rochester looks to continue improving.”Having two quality wins under our belt in the conference is a great confidence boost going into the rest of our season and preparing for the second Round Robin in Chicago in two weeks,” Johnson said.The Yellowjackets’ next game is on Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. for the first day of the Elmira College Tournament.McLean can be reached at amclean@campustimes.org.