Jack Hoover
SPORTS EDITOR
In his pre-season press conference, Omaha volleyball coach Matt Buttermore said that having a team be undefeated at the end of the regular season can be no good, because then you don’t learn anything about the team.
If that’s the case, then the Mavericks are going to have to wait a little while longer before they learn anything about their squad. As things stand currently, Buttermore has yet to lose a game in his tenure as Omaha coach. In fact, he hasn’t even lost a set yet.
Playing in the Omaha Challenge at Baxter Arena, the Mavericks opened the season and the Buttermore era with two wins against Abilene Christian and Idaho State.
In the first game of the day, Omaha hardly let Abilene Christian get close to them, as they swept the Wildcats 3-0. The first set would be the closest of the evening as the Mavericks just edged it 25-23. That would be the most difficult challenge from Abilene Christian, however, as the Mavericks won the next two sets by margins of 25-11 and 25-18.
The second game against Idaho State proved to be even more of a mismatch. The Mavericks didn’t drop a set either in this game, as they won 3-0. The scores for those sets were, in order, 25-16, 25-17 and 25-18.
While both games involved total team efforts, one difference maker for Omaha was junior Isabella Sade. Sade proved to be clinical for the Mavericks in the two matches as she finished with a team-leading 34 kills. 19 of those kills came in the match against Abilene Christian, which was just four kills short of equaling Sade’s career record of 23.
In the final game of the weekend, Omaha came back from a two-set deficit to win 3-2 against Albany. The Maverick’s next game will be a big test against Kansas University on Sept. 3. This match can be streamed live on OMavs.com or listened to on MavRadio.fm.
