The UB Volleyball team defeated Division II Mercyhurst and Big Four rival Niagara today, to conclude their spring season, in two matches played at Alumni Arena.

Against Mercyhurst, the Bulls were in command throughout the entire match, winning all four sets (25–10, 25–12, 25–17 and 25–16). The Bulls looked sharp in all phases of the game: serving, receiving, digging, setting, attacking and blocking. Sophomore setter Scout McLerran opened the fourth set with three straight aces, and had four in the set and probably eight in the match, while senior middle blocker Cassie Shado was close to unstoppable both attacking and blocking.

Buffalo had lost to Niagara 3–1 in the fall, but today the Bulls had a very strong performance, where everyone on the roster contributed, in defeating Niagara 3–1 (25–18, 13–25, 25–23 and 25–22). As against Mercyhurst, the Bulls had all aspects of their game working well in the first set. The second set was tied 5–5 when Niagara went on a 10–1 run, as the Bulls could not return serve well, and when they did, they ran into a brick wall in the person of Niagara 6–5 right side Aleksandra Steins, who blocked three UB attacks during that streak. After that, the Bulls settled down and returned serve better, they stopped trying to attack over Steins, and UB took the final two sets.

McLerran was sharp all day long, setting up her attackers, serving, attacking and even blocking. McLerran was more aggressive offensively than she was in the fall, and attacked frequently, scoring on most. She also put up some "shoot sets" to her outside hitters, something we didn't see much of last fall. Shado continued to dominate on the front line, while sophomore outside hitter Rachel Sanks and junior outside hitters Raven Jordan and Valisha Watkins were effective attacking. Buffalo's other middle blocker, junior Megan Wernette did all the things you expect of a middle blocker, scoring well and blocking well; and also she served well and even had a perfect set to Watkins for a kill. Redshirt freshman Lauren Slavoski played sparingly today, after missing all of last year with a torn ACL, but showed her talent with some powerful swings. The back row (junior libero Larra Bickelhaupt, and sophomore defensive specialists Maddie Torbeck and Hannah Watson) generally passed well, although at times the Niagara serves caused them trouble, not just in the second set, but also in sets three and four.