Playing their fourth consecutive five set match, Buffalo came away with a victory over Toledo 16-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-23, 15-12. Their record is now 5–9 and 1–1 in the MAC.

Trailing 2 sets to 1, the Bulls used strong serving to come from behind late in the fourth set, and they continued that strong serving in the fifth set to come away with the victory. Trailing 23–20 in the fourth set, Buffalo picked up a point on an attack error by the Rockets, and then senior setter Scout McLerran would serve out the set for Buffalo. Up until this match*, UB assistant coach Kaysie Shebeneck had been signalling to the UB servers where to serve the ball. But tonight, assistant coach David Beck had those duties, and he instructed McLerran to target Toledo defensive specialist Caleigh Barhorst consistently. Barhorst made bad pass after bad pass on the McLerran serves and Toledo couldn't run their offense. On set point, McLerran's serve at Barhorst resulted in an ace. In addition, McLerran has served from the right side of the service line her entire career, but Beck moved her (and other servers as well) around to the left or middle effectively.

(Asterisk — I am not 100% sure that this was the first night that Beck called the serves, but I had not noticed players moving from side to side on the service line regularly before tonight.)

And the serving run by McLerran would continue into the fifth set. Again targeting Barhorst, and again moving from left to right or vice versa at Beck's direction, McLerran's tough serves resulted in more bad passes, again de-railing the Toledo offense, and Buffalo took a 4–0 lead. Senior outside hitter Rachel Sanks would have similar success serving against Barhorst and moving from side to side, and Buffalo extended their lead to 7–4. Then Barhorst rotated out of the lineup, Toledo's serve receive improved and they were able to run their offense and tied the set at 11. Barhorst then rotated back into the lineup, and with McLerran serving, the Bulls targeted Barhorst again, with similar success. With Buffalo leading 14–11, Toledo coach Jason Oliver removed Barhorst from the court, replacing his defensive specialist with a front row player. Toledo would score the next point, but then a kill by Sanks, attacking out of the front row middle, ended the match.

For the match, Buffalo tied their season best 11 aces, but just as importantly, Buffalo had their best aces to error ratio of the season, with only 6 service errors.

The Bulls have been using a designed play very effectively this season where one of their pin hitters attacks out of the front row middle; by my count, they ran this play 7 times tonight, picking up 5 kills, including the winner on match point by Sanks.

Buffalo was badly outplayed in the first set, hitting 0.071 to Toledo's 0.389. Sophomore right side Monika Šimkova had only 2 kills and four errors, and late in the first set, Buffalo head coach Scott Smith sent in senior Polina Prokudina to replace Šimkova. Prokudina would pick up a kill late in the first set, and then 17 more the rest of the way to lead the Bulls for the night. In that second set, with Buffalo trailing 9–8, Prokudina would serve five straight points, four coming on kills from senior middle blocker Kristina Nieves (including three in a row) and one point on an ace. And after that, Toledo never climbed back in the set.

In the third set, neither team could build more than a two point lead, and the lead changed hands many times, with the set still tied at 23–23, then a Buffalo attack error and a Toledo kill gave the Rockets the set. In the fourth set, Buffalo trailed 17–13, then UB scored the next five points; Toledo would counter with a 4 point run of their own, leading to McLerran's set clinching serving run.

Sanks would finish with 11 kills, while Nieves had nine and junior middle blocker Lexi Nordmann also had 9. Nordmann led the team with 4 blocks, while Nieves, Šimkova and Sanks had 3. Sophomore libero Paige Beck (no relation to assistant coach David Beck) had a career high 29 digs, and for the fourth straight match had 20 or more digs. McLerran had 48 assists. Sanks tied her career high with 3 aces, while Prokudina and Nordmann each had two.

Notes and Irrelevant Trivia:

• Sanks' serving continues to be very strong. Prior to this year, Sanks had rarely served for the Bulls, but she was put into the serving rotation a few weeks ago, and has caused lots of trouble for the Bulls' opponents.
• Fashion update: McLerran has worn a headband throughout the season, but in the two games this week, she did not wear a headband. What does this mean? I have no idea.
• At 14–11 in the fifth set, McLerran landed awkwardly and appeared to be injured and was slow to get up. The UB trainer came out, and after McLerran walked around for a few seconds, she was kept in the match.
• Paige Beck is now averaging 3.77 digs per set. Buffalo has not had a player average over 4 digs per set since 2013, when libero Kelly Svoboda had a jaw-dropping 5.66 digs per set to lead the MAC and was fifth in the nation. Svoboda was named MAC Defensive Player of the Year. She now coaches at Cleveland State.
• Smith was quoted at ubbulls.com: "I thought we responded well tonight after the result from Thursday. I thought our energy was better and we were way better from the service line tonight."
• The box score lists the length of the match at 10:04. I would have bet the house that the match took longer than that. In fact, Thursday night, there was one rally that was longer than that.
• The Bulls are on the road next week, at Miami (OH) and Bowling Green.