Bulls Sweep NIU For Second Straight MAC Win

Saturday, October 19

Buffalo, NY

6 pm

University at Buffalo

6-14,2-6MAC

Northern Illinois

6-16,2-6MAC

Northern Ill.

Buffalo

Bulls Sweep NIU For Second Straight MAC Win

10/19/2019 8:18:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo volleyball team capped off a banner weekend on Saturday night by sweeping the Northern Illinois Huskies, 3-0, picking up its second straight victory. The win improves the Bulls to 7-13 and 3-5 in league play.

UB took the match 25-20, 25-17, 25-15 as Buffalo hit .429 over the three-set affair. On the other end, the Huskies hit just .120.

It was total domination for the Bulls who trailed only once in the entire match and that was 1-0 to start the first set. However, from there the Bulls scored seven of the next nine points take a 7-3 lead on a kill from junior Lexi Nordmann. A service ace from senior Polina Prokudina extended the advantage to 20-13 and a kill from sophomore Monika Simkova would clinch the opening set.

Buffalo opened the second set on a 6-3 run before NIU would pull back within one at 12-11. From there, UB score four straight as a kill by Prokudina extended the lead to 16-11. Up 19-16, the Bulls went on another run scoring five straight to go ahead 24-16. Another kill from Simkova clinched the second and gave Buffalo the 2-0 lead.

The two teams were tied at 4-4 early in the third when the Bulls scored four in a row to take an 8-4 lead following a block from Nordmann and senior Scout McLerran. A solo block from Nordmann opened the Buffalo lead to 18-10 and an ace from Simkova put the Bulls ahead 21-11. NIU never got any closer than eight before Buffalo scored the final two points to clinch the set and the match.

"I am really happy with the way the team played this weekend and these two victories were huge for our confidence," said head coach Scott Smith. "We worked on our defense a lot during the week and that showed with our performance at the net."

Senior Rachel Sanks led all players with 13 kills as she hit .556, while Prokudina added nine kills, hitting .421 for the night. Simkova also had just one error as she finished with seven kills on 10 swings, hitting .600. McLerran chipped in four kills without an attack error. The Friendsville, TN native also had 33 assists.

UB finished with six aces, led by three from Sanks.

Defensively, UB had 22 digs as a team, led by five from sophomore Paige Beck. Buffalo finished with 10.0 blocks over the three sets, led by six from freshman Abby Leigh, who had three solos. Nordmann added four blocks and Simkova had three.

The Bulls will now hit the road for their next four matches, beginning Thursday night at Eastern Michigan.