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Volleyball moves to 7–3 after defeat of Appalachian State

Sophomore setter Scout McLerran set a new career high with 65 assists, and tied her career high with 4 aces, as Buffalo defeated Appalachian State 3–2. Buffalo is now 7–3 on the season, and has a 3 match winning streak.

The match was a nail-biter until the fifth set. Appalachian State would win sets 1 and 3 by identical scores of 25–23, while Buffalo would takes sets 2 and 4 by scores of 27–25 and 25–22. But the fifth set was a runaway by the Bulls, opening with consecutive aces by McLerran. The Bulls took a 7–2 lead, forcing the Mountaineers to call a time out, and then Buffalo ran the lead to 10–3. At 13–6, McLerran added another ace, and then after a Mountaineers point, it was McLerran to sophomore right side Rachel Sanks for the kill and the win. That assist on the last point of the match broke McLerran's previous career high of 64 assists, set twice a year ago.

On both offense and defense, this was a true team effort, as almost everyone made major contributions. Sophomore outside hitter Polina Prokudina rebounded from a weak effort yesterday to put up a match high 26 kills (the third time this year she has had 26 or more; and to put this in perspective, Prokudina's 27 kills against Canisius was the most by a Bulls player in 15 years). Freshman outside hitter Andrea Mitrovic had 14 kills, while middle blockers Megan Wernette had 10, Cassie Shado had 7 off the bench, and Kristina Nieves had 6. Sanks had her second strong match in a row, after struggling earlier in the year, with 11 kills.

On defense, Buffalo had 83 digs, a season high, as Mitrovic led the way with 24 digs (her first match with 20 or more digs), Prokudina added 17, junior libero Larra Bickelhaupt had 14, sophomore defensive specialist Hannah Watson had 13, and McLerran had 9. The Bulls had 7 blocks, led by Wernette with three.

Buffalo had a strong game from the service line, with 12 aces, led by 4 from McLerran, 3 from Wernette, and 2 from Bickelhaupt.

Buffalo plays host team College of Charleston tonight (7 pm EDT), possibly for the tournament championship (depending on the result of the CofC match vs Mercer going on now).

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