UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO ATHLETICS
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The University at Buffalo volleyball team swept the MAC East weekly honors, the Mid-American Conference announced on Monday evening. Sophomore Andrea Mitrovic was named the offensive player of the week for the second time this season, while sophomore setter Tia Gleason was named the setter of the week for the first time and junior middle blocker Kristina Nieves earned her first defensive player of the week nod.
Mitrovic was named to the all-tournament team of the Arkansas Classic after she finished with 51 kills in the three matches, averaging 4.25 kills per set. Her best match came in the five-set win over Butler as she tied her career high with 24 kills, while having just 10 errors on a career-high 71 total attempts. Mitrovic added 14 kills in just three sets against Arkansas and had 13 more kills against Northwestern. She also finished with five aces from the service line as she had three against the Wildcats alone. Defensively, she added 31 digs on the weekend.
Gleason stepped in during the last two matches this past weekend and led the Bulls to a win with a career performance against Big East foe Butler. In the five set win over the Bulldogs, Gleason dished out a career-high 53 assists, while adding 17 digs and a pair of service aces. She also had two kills and two blocks. Earlier on Saturday, the Memphis transfer finished with 28 assists and three blocks against Arkansas.
Nieves led the Bulls defensively this past weekend as she averaged 1.50 blocks per set during the 12 sets played by UB. In the weekend opener against Big Ten foe Northwestern, Nieves recorded nine blocks, which was a new career high for her. She added three blocks against Arkansas of the SEC and then had six blocks in UB’s five-set win over Butler, including two solo blocks. Through just nine matches, Nieves already has 41 blocks on the year, averaging more than one per set. Offensively, she hit .455 against the Razorbacks and had 11 kills in the win over Butler.
The Bulls will return to action this weekend when they close out non-conference play at the American Volleyball Classic in Washington, DC. UB will face American at 7:00 pm on Friday night and will then face nationally-ranked Penn State on Saturday at 12:30 pm and Howard at 4:30 pm.
