The Butler volleyball team continued a string of good play over the weekend, capturing its second and third wins in a row.

The Bulldogs (8-12, 4-4) took two Horizon League matches at home when they defeated Loyola 3-1 on Saturday before disposing of Green Bay 3-0 on Sunday.

The Bulldogs got off to a quick start against the Phoenix (8-12, 4-4) from Green Bay, taking the opening set 25-21.

Butler kept Green Bay at a comfortable distance throughout the set. The Phoenix were able to pull within a couple points on a few occasions but were never able to close the gap.

The Bulldogs also jumped out to a big lead in the second set before Green Bay began to pressure.

Photo by Taylor Cox

Facing a Phoenix set point, senior middle back Maureen Bamiro notched a kill to even the score and then gave Butler the lead two serves later with another kill.

The second set would come to an end when Green Bay made an error, giving the Bulldogs a 27-25 set win.

“We practice working under pressure and in pressure situations all the time,” Bamiro said. “We just tried to focus on making the smart play and not trying to error ourselves out [of the match], and I thought we did a good job of that.”

The Bulldogs did not waste their opportunity to sweep the match, finishing strong to take the final set 25-21.

Bamiro led Butler with 17 kills while freshman libero Brooke Ruffolo recorded a team-high 21 digs.

Freshman outside hitter Kelly Kyle added 18 digs while junior setter Gina Vera finished with 40 assists.

The win Sunday followed a 3-1 victory for the Bulldogs Saturday against Loyola.

The Ramblers (4-12, 1-5) might have come in as the underdog, but they gave Butler all they could handle in the first set, winning it 25-23.

The Bulldogs would respond by taking the next two sets by decisive margins, 25-14 and 25-11, respectively.

“We came out lackadaisical in the beginning,” sophomore outside hitter Maggie Harbison said. “But then we said, ‘OK, we have to step it up, this is our home court,’ and we came out and served and received really well.”

The fourth set proved to be close until Butler finally pulled away to take the set and match 25-19.

Ruffolo led the team with 25 digs and Vera added 41 assists to complement her 12 digs.

Harbison added nine kills for the Bulldogs.

Photo by Taylor Cox

With the sweep, Butler moved to 4-4 in the Horizon League and into fifth place with eight conference matches remaining.

The Bulldogs look to extend their winning streak when they head to Ohio for a pair of weekend contests.

Butler will face Youngstown State on Friday before traveling to Cleveland State to take on the Vikings, who currently hold second place.

The Penguins (2-18, 1-7) from Youngstown State have struggled to get anything going this season, with a win against Loyola as their only conference victory.

The Bulldogs defeated the Penguins earlier in the season 3-0 behind 16 kills from Kyle and 13 digs from Ruffolo.

The Vikings (13-5, 6-1), like the Bulldogs, are currently riding a three-game winning streak.

Cleveland State has defeated every team in the Horizon League except for Wisconsin-Milwaukee this season, including a 3-0 win over Butler in September.

After losing two matches this past weekend and falling to 5-12 on the season, the Butler volleyball team is searching for answers.

Hurt by unforced errors, the young Bulldogs  (6-12, 2-4) cannot seem to string together enough wins to get themselves back on track.

“This season is just a lot different,” sophomore outside hitter Maggie Harbison said. “We’re still trying to figure out who the leaders are, and everyone is taking on different roles.”

On Saturday against Valparaiso, the Bulldogs’ youth was apparent.

The Crusaders (13-6, 4-1) narrowly took the first set 25-21, but the Bulldogs came back and won the second set.

Valparaiso came out of the break strong and cruised to win the third and fourth sets.

Middle back Maureen Bamiro, the only senior on this year’s Butler squad, led the Bulldogs with 10 kills. Harbison added nine kills and five blocks.

“On the stat sheet, we beat them, but unforced errors really hurt us,” Harbison said. “Our second game should be more of a rivalry, and we’re getting better with every game.”

Photo by Taylor Cox

Earlier in the weekend, the Bulldogs visited Chicago to take on the Illinois-Chicago Flames.

Amid a hostile crowd in a packed gym, the Bulldogs were able to push the Flames (11-5, 4-1) to a fifth set but dropped it and the match on a missed serve.

“It was a very emotional and intense game,” junior setter Gina Vera said. “We fought through the whole game and were proud of our effort.”

Freshman Kelly Kyle had a strong match, with 11 kills and nine digs. She was joined by Harbison, who recorded 10 kills and eight blocks.

Bamiro added 10 kills and four blocks.

The Bulldogs played well at times during the game but made too many self-inflicted errors to win.

“The gym was crazy, and they’re one of the best teams in the Horizon League,” Harbison said. “We went five with them, which was good to see.”

The Bulldogs took care of Wright State at home on Tuesday.

They took all three sets from the Raiders (2-16, 1-6) by scores of 25-17, 25-16 and 25-15.

The Bulldogs face Loyola Oct. 8. The game will start at 4 p.m. in Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Inexperience and a low hitting percentage sent the Butler volleyball team to a 3-0 defeat Monday night against North Dakota State.

Butler coach Sharon Clark said it has been a growing year for the young team that includes six freshmen. She said this inexperience added to the Bulldogs’ 20 attack errors in the match.

“We have erred ourselves out of games this year,” Clark said, “but we’re looking at getting better in each game.”

The Bulldogs (5-10, 1-2) had a slow first two sets and ended the match with a .087 hitting percentage, a far cry from the .288 hitting percentage of the Bison (10-6).

Photo by Taylor Cox

Freshman middle back Stephanie Kranda had a strong first set for Butler. She ended the match with a team-high nine kills.

“[Kranda] is by far the ultimate utility player,” Clark said. “As she gets better playing at this level, she’ll really be a valuable weapon for us.”

The momentum was ultimately not in the Bulldogs’ favor, however, with the Bison taking the first set 25-18.

Butler sophomore middle back Claire Randich started off the second set with a kill, followed by a series of long volleys.

The two teams traded points until back-to-back kills by the Bison put them ahead 9-5.

The kills began a streak of 11 unanswered points by the Bison that ended when the Bulldogs scored on an error.

“Those long rallies are always energizing but also deflating whenever you come out on the short end of it,” Clark said.

Junior setter Gina Vera said the team tried to regroup between the second and third sets and focus on moving around the floor more quickly.

The third set started off tighter with kills by Kranda and senior middle back Maureen Bamiro.

The teams were neck and neck early in the set and tied at 15-15 following a kill by Bamiro.

They continued trading points, but the Bison pulled ahead and won the set 25-19.

The Bulldogs also fell 3-0 Friday against Milwaukee. The Panthers (11-4, 4-0) recorded a hitting percentage of .317, pushing them past the error-prone Bulldogs in three sets (25-23, 25-15, 25-14).

Sophomore outside hitter Maggie Harbison led the Bulldogs with six kills and a .333 hitting percentage. Freshman outside hitter Kelly Kyle had a team-high nine kills and five digs in the loss.

Butler will hit the road this weekend, taking on conference opponents Illinois-Chicago Friday and Valparaiso Saturday.

The Butler University volleyball team hung tough with three different teams over the course of 14 games at the Notre Dame Invitational, but they came up short in all three matches and started the season with a 0-3 mark.

The Bulldogs lost the first match 3-2 to Idaho and fell to Eastern Michigan by the same margin in the second match.

On the final day of the invitational, Butler gave Notre Dame a run for its money but dropped the match 3-1 to end their tournament.

Against Idaho, the Bulldogs fell behind two games to none before battling back to force a decisive fifth game.

“We got off to a slow start, but once we got together and regrouped ourselves, we came out with fire, and we got those two games right back,” senior middle blocker Maureen Bamiro said.

The Vandals (1-2) proved to be too much for the Bulldogs, however, winning the final game 15-11.

Freshman outside hitter Kelly Kyle led Butler with 13 kills and 10 digs, while Bamiro, a returning all-league and all-region player, added 10 kills and four digs.

Junior setter Gina Vera, who ranked fifth in the Horizon League in assists last season, provided 47 of them for the Bulldogs.

“We came back and fought and that shows a lot of character in us,” Bamiro said. “We have the ability to be great. We just have to learn how to put our abilities together and finish a game.”

The Bulldogs would get another chance to finish their match against Eastern Michigan, which lasted five games.

Butler lost the first game before picking up consecutive victories. After the Eagles (2-1) won the fourth game, they used the momentum to capture the fifth game 17-15.

Bamiro led the team with 19 kills, and sophomore outside hitter Maggie Harbison added 17 kills and 11 digs to bolster Butler’s offense.

The Bulldogs won more points than Eastern Michigan, outscoring them 113-95, but close games were the Achilles’ heel for Butler.

“We made a lot of unforced errors at the wrong times,” Harbison said. “We just need to be more consistent.”

The Bulldogs wrapped up their weekend with a match against Notre Dame.

Butler split the first two games with the Fighting Irish (3-0), but Notre Dame proved to be too much for Butler, taking the final two games for a 3-1 victory.
The win allowed the Fighting Irish to capture the invitational crown and achieve their best start to a season since 2006.

Bamiro again led the Bulldogs in kills, tallying 13 along with 5 blocks. Sophomore libero Maureen Nesbit chipped in with a team-high 16 digs.

Butler did not get the results it wanted over the weekend, but Bamiro said the squad did leave with an idea of what it needed to work on as the season progresses.

“We made a lot of progress,” Bamiro said. “We just have to work on putting it all together. Just working on that constant repetition and finding our niche, and just doing it over and over again so that we don’t have to think about it [will help us].”

The Bulldogs will return to action this Thursday when they head west to compete in the Portland Classic.

In the Classic, they will take on teams from  Portland, Texas A&M, Nevada and Washington State.

Butler is now tied with Milwaukee for first place in the Horizon League after blocking conference foe Wright State off the court last Friday in a 3-1 win.

As SuperCuts hairdressers helped willing fans donate to the Locks of Love foundation, the Bulldogs (8-6, 3-0 HL) trimmed down the Raiders (6-8, 1-2 HL) with defense.

Butler had 12.5 team blocks and dug most of the balls that got past the front line.

Junior middle Maureen Bamiro led the team with 3.5 blocks in the match.

Bamiro was named Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week for Sept. 20-26 after compiling 14 blocks in two matches last week.

“Blocking has always been one of our strengths,” senior middle Jalesa Lee said. “The entire week we had been focusing on defense, and you could tell during the match.”

Lee was one of four Bulldogs who had two blocks against the Raiders.

In the back row, the team saved 68 attacks in four sets, and five different players had double-digit digs with senior

Jessie Wolfe leading the team with 15.

Senior Jessie Wolfe and junior Maureen Bamiro stand at the net preparing to block a Wright State attack. Wolfe and Bamiro combined for 5.5 of the team's 12.5 blocks in the match. (Photo by Caroline Johnson)

“Everybody has been contributing to that team defense, and that’s why we’re doing so well in the Horizon League,” second assistant coach Nina Inic said.
Entering the match on a three-match win streak, the Bulldogs grabbed the momentum from the start of the first set with a 6-1 run.
From there, the

Bulldogs heavy hitting took over. Eighteen team kills led Butler to a 25-21 win.

“We wanted to focus on jumping on it right away,” Inic said. “It’s not really something that you work on. It’s more of a mindset of ‘get in there and get it done.’”
The Bulldogs used the same template for the second set, starting with an 8-2 run. Butler knocked in 16 kills on only three errors.

The Bulldogs finished the set with the same intensity that they started, winning 25-17 and taking a 2-0 lead into the break.

“One thing we’ve been trying to eliminate is our errors and play a smarter game,” Lee said. “We have to know when we have the right opportunities to go for it and when to take your time and play smart.”

The Bulldogs came out flat during the third set. Butler tied the set at 17 after being down 10-2. However, the Raiders took the final eight points to win the game 25-17.

After hitting only .026 on six errors in the third set, the Bulldogs got back on track in set four with another early run, capturing eight of the first 10 points.

Butler protected its lead with more team defense and won the match on one of Bamiro’s team-leading 13 kills, which finalized a .417 hitting percentage.

“Bamiro was unstoppable at the net,” Inic said. “And Gina [Vera] made some good decisions at crucial moments, and that is a big reason why we’re playing so well.”

Senior outside Jessie Wolfe and freshman opposite Maggie Harbison were in full support of Bamiro with 11 kills and 10 kills, respectively.

After being ranked fourth in the coaches’ preseason poll, Butler now finds themselves sitting atop the Horizon League standings.

“I felt like we all thought that we had something to prove and that we were underestimated [in the rankings],” Lee said. “We’ve been working really hard and are hungry to prove them wrong.”
Butler hosts the UIC Flames (7-7, 2-2 HL) this Saturday in Hinkle Fieldhouse and will look to extend their winning streak to five matches.