Newcomers Lead Bulls To Five-Set Victory At Eastern Michigan

Thursday, February 25

Ypsilanti, MI

6:00 pm

1-10,1-10MAC

Eastern Michigan

3-4,3-4MAC

Buffalo

Eastern Mich.

Newcomers Lead Bulls To Five-Set Victory At Eastern Michigan

2/25/2021 9:35:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

YPSILANTI, MI – Freshmen Emma Gielas and Milla Malik combined for 40 kills leading the Bulls to their first victory of the year, a 3-2 thriller at Eastern Michigan.

Gielas finished with a career high 21 kills, the most by a UB player this season, and the most from a Buffalo freshman since Andrea Mitrovic had 24 against Bowling Green on Nov. 11, 2017.

The Bulls took the match 25-23, 21-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-7 despite being narrowly outhit by Eastern Michigan, .256 to .223.

Buffalo got out to a quick start to the evening scoring the first four points, including a pair of service aces from junior Monika Simkova. UB continued to lead through out the opening set as an ace from junior setter Kyndal Bacon opened a 20-16 lead. The Eagles would tie the set up at 23-23, but the Bulls scored the final two points, capped off on a block from Malik and Lexi Nordmann, giving Buffalo the opening set.

The Eagles led wire to wire in the second set, tying the match up, but the Bulls responded in the third overcoming a slow start. Eastern Michigan led 9-2 out of the intermission, but Buffalo went on to score the next six points, pulling back within one.

Eastern Michigan continued to lead 17-16 when the Bulls scored the next five points, the final three coming on errors from the Eagles. Kills form Gielas and Bacon clinched the set, giving Buffalo the 2-1 lead in the match.

Buffalo took a 9-6 lead in the fourth set and continued to lead 13-9 when Eastern Michigan scored four straight to tie it up. The Bulls regained the lead at 18-16 on a kill from Malik, but the two teams found themselves tied at 20-20. The Eagles would end the set on a 5-1 run tying the match up and sending it to a fifth set, the first time the Bulls played a fifth set this year.

UB dominated the fifth and deciding set, hitting .550 as the Bulls had 11 kills on 20 swings, with no errors. The Bulls scored the first three points of the fifth set, including a kill from Malik and another block from Malik and Nordmann. The Eagles went on to take a 5-4 lead, but back-to-back kills from Malik ignited a quick 5-0 run as UB took a 9-5 lead. A kill from Courtney Okwara extended the advantage to 13-6 and kills from Gielas and Simkova clinched the set and the match.

Gielas finished with 21 kills and just six errors on 44 attempts as she hit .341 for the match with seven digs.

Malik had career bests across the board, finishing with 19 kills, 17 digs, and five total blocks.

Nordmann had eight kills and just one error, while Okwara finished with seven kills. Nordmann added four blocks and Okwara had three.

Bacon had another good night running the offense as she had a career-high 51 assists, while adding four kills and no errors. Bacon also had eight digs.

Sophomore Jenna Sonnenberg led the Bulls defensively with 19 digs, while junior Paige Beck finished with eight. As a team, UB had 7.0 total blocks.

The Bulls and Eagles will be back in action tomorrow at 4:00 pm. The match will air on ESPN+.