The MAC Tournament has not been kind to the UB Volleyball team in the past, but tonight, the #7 seed Bulls picked up their first ever win the "round of eight", sweeping #6 Akron 25–15, 25–20, 25–21. Buffalo used strong play by just about the entire lineup, and their strong serving and strong defense held the Zips to a 0.054 hitting percentage for the match. The Bulls were led by senior outside hitter Rachel Sanks, who registered a match high 13 kills, and by senior defensive specialist Hannah Watson, who led the Bulls with 11 digs, one shy of her season high set against Akron in the regular season. The two teams had split their matches during the regular season, but the Bulls finished the regular season on a 7–3 run, while Akron lost their last four regular season matches

Buffalo used their strong serving and strong defense in the first set to hold the Zips to a –0.121 hitting percentage. The Bulls led 13–11, and then a kill by Sanks and four straight Akron attacking errors, the last coming on a solo block by Sanks, put the Bulls up 18–11, and the set was out of reach for Akron. Freshman Abby Leigh, now used as a serving specialist, picked up two aces in the set.

The second set looked to be shaping up similarly, as Buffalo used a 7–0 run, with sophomore right side Monika Šimkova serving, to take a 13–5 lead. Senior outside hitter Polina Prokudina picked up three kills in that run. But this time Akron fought back, and came within one point of the Bulls at 15–14. The Bulls then went on a 5–0 run, using tough serving from senior setter Scout McLerran to keep Akron's offense off balance. McLerran had an ace in that run, plus two other tough serves that resulted in UB points, including a short serve that led to a UB block to make the score 20–15.

The Bulls played from behind in the third set, as Akron's offense (for a while) seemed to come to life. Buffalo trailed by at 16–13, but then Buffalo scored the next three points to tie the set. Again Akron went ahead by 3, but then Akron's offense disappeared, and the Bulls went on a 9–2 run to take the set and the match. It was Watson who was the spark for the Bulls in that stretch, making outstanding dig after outstanding dig, plus she served four straight points, each one a tough serve that caused the Akron passers problems. It should be noted that Watson has rarely served this year. In that stretch, the Bulls took the lead at 20–19, as Watson made a great save, and then sophomore libero Paige Beck's pass went over the net and landed right on the sideline for a kill (the call originally was that the ball landed out and then Buffalo coach Scott Smith challenged and the call was reversed).

The teams traded points, and then two kills by Sanks around an Akron point gave the Bulls their first ever match point in the MAC Tournament "round of eight", at 24–21. Then, on the next play, Sanks turned her ankle before the play ended, she went down and didn't get up, and the whistle blew stopping play. The UB trainer came out and looked and Sanks, she got up, hobbled around and then decided she could remain in the game. So match point again for the Bulls, an Akron attack was dug by Beck, who made a perfect pass to McLerran, who then fed the ball right to Šimkova, whose attack went off the block and out.

McLerran would finish with 28 assists, and the Bulls hit 0.198 as a team. Prokudina had 9 kills and Šimkova had 8. Šimkova had four blocks as did junior middle blocker Lexi Nordmann, while senior middle blocker Kristina Nieves had 3. Beck had 11 digs. Leigh picked up 3 aces as a serving specialist, and also four digs in her limited time on the court. (This is the 4th position played by Leigh this year, and has been impressive at all four.) As a team, Buffalo finished with 6 aces and just three serving errors, one of their best serving nights of the season, and again UB effectively used the short serve throughout the match to keep Akron off balance.

Notes:

• Back when all 12 teams in the MAC advanced to the MAC Tournament, twice Buffalo won first round matches as the #10 seed. However, the Bulls have never before won once the field was narrowed to eight teams.
  
• Buffalo will face the host team #3 Bowling Green tomorrow at 7 pm in the second round of the tournament (what I like to call the "Final Six"). Buffalo split their matches with Bowling Green this year.
  
• In the other match of the day, #5 Ohio defeated #8 Kent State in five sets.