The UB Volleyball team continued its run of defeating top teams in the MAC, today defeating Bowling Green 3–1 (21–25, 25–23, 25–23 and 25–16). The Bulls, after a 1–5 start in the MAC, have now gone on a 5–2 run, defeating four of the top teams in the MAC in that stretch, and this time finishing the job in four sets (the other wins over top MAC programs took five sets). Buffalo is now 6–7 in the MAC. Buffalo plays MAC leader Miami tomorrow night at 6pm at Alumni Arena, and it will be senior night for the Bulls.
Senior outside hitter Rachel Sanks led the Bulls with 17 kills, while senior outside hitter Polina Prokudina had 12, junior middle blocker Lexi Nordmann had 10 and sophomore right side Monika Šimkova also had 10.
In the first set, Buffalo would take an 18–15 lead before giving up five points in a row, fading and eventually losing by four points. The Bulls and the Falcons hit an identical 0.355 in that set, but after that, Buffalo's defense held Bowling Green to under 0.200 in the remaining three sets, while the Bulls hit over 0.250 in each set.
It looked like the first set would repeat itself in the second set, as Buffalo's 18–17 lead disappeared when Bowling Green scored four in a row. But this time, the Bulls came back with a 5–1 run. And then after a service error, kills by Šimkova and Nordmann ended the set.
The third set was also very tight, back and forth, but again the Bulls prevailed in a very close set. With the set tied at 22, a kill by freshman middle blocker Abby Leigh and then an ace by Leigh gave the Bull set point, and after a service error, Bowling Green committed a service error of their own.
Buffalo ran away from Bowling Green in the fourth set. They took a 17–9 lead, as Prokudina had five kills in the set up to that point, and Bowling Green never got back into contention.
Senior setter Scout McLerran had 45 assists, 11 digs, four kills and 2 blocks. Sophomore libero Paige Beck had 15 digs and freshman defensive specialist Jenna Sonnenberg had 10 digs. Leigh had 3 aces and Šimkova had 2. Leigh and Nordmann led the team with 4 blocks each; it was the sixth straight match that Leigh has led or tied for the team lead in blocks.
Notes:
- Sonnenberg replaced Sanks at the serving line for the Bulls. Sanks had served very effectively earlier in the season, but recently had been less effective.
- Senior defensive specialist Hannah Watson, who has rarely been used in serve receive this year, took a regular turn in the two-woman serve receive formation with Beck. Also, the Bulls have used Sonnenberg and Beck as a two-woman serve receive all year very effectively. Tonight was the first match where both Watson and Sonnenberg were used in two-woman serve receive.
- Setter Scout McLerran won three straight state titles in high school at the Webb School of Knoxville, TN. At UB, she was named team captain as a freshman, and also played every point at the setter position that year, and was named to the MAC All-Freshman team. After her sophomore year, she was on pace to finish second in UB history on the all-time career assist list; but then injuries and competition at her position slowed her down as a junior. This year, McLerran has been the regular setter again, and after today's match she has 3,680 career assists, putting her in fifth place, and very close to fourth place (Somer Deschambault with 3,699). McLerran has a career high of 65 assists in a match.
- Outside Hitter Polina Prokudina transferred to UB after playing one year at Syracuse. Early in her UB career, she set a career high with 27 kills in a match, coming close to matching that with 26 kills a week ago against Ball State. She is closing in on 1,000 career kills.
- Outside Hitter Rachel Sanks played four years at UB, and is having the best year of her career, leading the team in points this year. She also has 17 aces this year, after picking up just seven in previous years — she rarely served in the past.
- Middle Blocker Kristina Nieves transferred from St. Peter's (a team that went winless that year), and has played three years at Buffalo. Her first year at UB she was a backup at the middle blocker position and took over the starting middle blocker role as a junior. She hit 0.326 as a junior, and is hitting 0.295 this year. She has been one of the team's top blockers each season.
- Defensive Specialist Hannah Watson played in the front row in high school at 5–8, and picked up over 1,000 career kills. At UB, she has played both libero and defensive specialist. She had a career high of 37 digs as a freshman. Her most memorable play, and probably the play of the decade for UB volleyball, made ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 plays, when as a sophomore, she dove head first over the scorer's table to save a ball, Buffalo eventually winning the point with five players on the court.
ICYMI: @ubvolleyball was featured on @espn #Top10 Plays after Hannah Watson dove into the scorer’s table to save this point #UBhornsUP pic.twitter.com/MzqH7N3TM4
— UB Athletics (@UBAthletics) October 30, 2025