Bulls Fall To Northern Illinois, 3-1

Tori Beckman records a career-high 31 digs

Tori Beckman

BUFFALO, NY – The UB women’s volleyball team dropped a tightly-contested match to Northern Illinois on Friday night as the Bulls fell, 3-1, at Alumni Arena. UB was taking part in the annual “Dig Pink” event and raised over $2,500 for breast cancer research.

The Huskies took the contest 25-23, 22-25, 25-22, 25-17 as NIU hit .249 opposed to just .188 for the Bulls. UB was led by 17 kills from junior Marisa Hornbaker, who added seven digs and two blocks. Junior Kristin Bignell added 12 kills and three blocks, while Kelsey Lueders had eight kills and four total blocks.

Marisa Hornbaker

Freshman Tori Beckman reached a new career-high as she recorded 31 digs on the night, the first UB player to do so since the 2006 season. Senior Lauren Fensten and sophomore Heather Pyle each finished with 12 digs. Junior Lindsey Schlegel had 44 assists, five kills, six digs and two total blocks.

“I thought Northern Illinois did a great job blocking us and outhustling us,” said head coach Todd Kress. “They had an answer for everything we threw at them. We have to get better defensively and scoring when we are in system.”

Kristin Bignell

The Huskies were led by a match-high 25 kills from Meagan Schoenrock and 18 kills from Allison McGlaughlin. Maddie Hughes had a match-high 24 digs, while McGlaughlin completed the double-double with 17 digs.

The Bulls will be back in action tomorrow night when they host Western Michigan. The match against the Broncos begins at 7:00 pm.