The UB Volleyball team looked sharp taking the first two sets from Western Michigan, but then the Broncos took the next two sets to tie the match. The Bulls were on fire in the fifth set to take the match by scores of 25–19, 25–17, 20–25, 19–25, 15–8. Buffalo is now 6–13 and 2–5 in the MAC.

In the first two sets, Buffalo played very well in all phases of the game. Their serving caused Western Michigan's offense to struggle, the Bulls blocking was solid, their passing was sharp, and they made few unforced attack errors. Buffalo hit 0.355 in the first set and 0.375 in the second set, while holding the Broncos to hitting percentages of 0.071 and 0.105. How solid was the Bulls defense and how out-of-sorts was the WMU offense? Consider this: WMU outside hitter Rachel Bontrager came into the match leading the MAC in kills per set at 3.80, and after two sets, she had just two kills. I'm not very good at math — okay, yes I am — but that works out to a paltry 1 kill per set.

In sets 3 and 4, the teams did a role reversal, and suddenly, Buffalo's passing was weak, their offense made unforced errors or couldn't find the openings to get a kill, and their defense struggled. Buffalo fell behind early in each set, and never climbed back into contention. Buffalo hit 0.216 in the third set (not bad) but WMU hit 0.548, while in the fourth set, Buffalo fell to a 0.049 hitting percentage while WMU hit 0.214.

And then in the fifth set, Buffalo turned it on again, and opened an early lead, and never relinquished the lead. Buffalo hit 0.500 in the fifth set, compared to 0.130 to WMU. With Buffalo leading 8–5, they went on a 7–3 run to finish the set. In that run, senior outside hitter Rachel Sanks picked up four points, three on kills and one on a block of Bontrager, to pull Buffalo ahead 13–7. Then a block by sophomore right side Monika Šimkova and freshman middle blocker Abby Leigh gave the Bulls match point. Senior outside hitter Polina Prokudina finished the set with a smash through the blockers hands and out.

It was another monster performance by Leigh at middle blocker, picking up a career high 11 blocks (one solo, 10 block assists), to go with 6 kills and two aces, and she finished with 14 points. When was the last time a UB player had 11 blocks in a match? Not since 2015 when sophomore Cassie Shado had 13 against Central Michigan. But to put Leigh's performance in this match in more perspective, Buffalo junior middle blocker Lexi Nordmann came into the match 7th in the MAC in blocks at 1.00 per set, and Nordmann did not pick up a block tonight.

That isn't to say that Nordmann had a bad game, she picked up 14 kills, by far her best as a Bull (her previous high was 9) and she hit 0.467 with zero attack errors. Sanks finished with 12 kills, 4 block assists and 2 aces. The 6–4 Prokudina again was the big bopper for the Bulls, with 20 kills. Šimkova finished with 10 kills and 4 block assists.

Senior setter Scout McLerran picked up 50 assists and led the Bulls to a strong 0.270 hitting percentage for the match. Sophomore libero Paige Beck had 17 digs, while Šimkova had 15 (surpassing her previous best of 10), McLerran and Prokudina had 9, and senior defensive specialist Hannah Watson had 8.

Notes:

• Two replay challenges resulted in referee's calls being overturned.
• Buffalo's use of outside hitters (Sanks and Prokudina) attacking out of the front row middle again was ineffective, with (by my count) five attacks, resulting in one kill and one WMU block.
• This was Buffalo's 9th five-set match this year out 19 matches, and Buffalo's record in five set matches is 4–5.
• Bontrager would finish with 11 kills, well below her season average of 3.8 per set, indicating how well Buffalo managed to defend her.
• The UB record for blocks in a match is 20 by Kathy Brinkworth in 1995, but that was before rally scoring was used, and the record isn't really comparable to records in the rally scoring era. It's not clear what the UB record for blocks in a match is since rally scoring began in 1999. Sam Pellom also had 13 blocks in one game for UB, but that was in men's basketball (in 1976).