Kent State volleyball secures first MAC victory

Kent State volleyball had its first Mid-American Conference victory of the season, beating Buffalo 3-0. 

“Obviously it’s a great feeling,” coach Don Gromala said. “But wins and losses aside, it’s how we did it. We competed really well and executed really well offensively.” 

The Flashes had a .336 hitting percentage, their highest against a conference opponent in over two years. Sophomore Melissa Kolurbasi had 11 of the teams 48 kills. 

“I was really happy and proud of how the girls fought, muscled and pushed back and started executing a little bit better offensively,” Gromala said. “We held them off.” 

Sophomore Erin Gardner lead the defense with 14 of the teams 33 digs. 

Kent State previously lost four MAC matches in a row and were swept in three of them, something Gromala said is not something the team talks about very much.  

“We’re not really taking into consideration people’s records,” Gromala said. “We know every match is a battle in our conference right now. It doesn’t matter if your home or away or how good a team’s record is.” 

Kent State travels to Akron on Saturday night to play the Zips at 7:00 p.m. Akron is currently 4-1 in the conference. 

“A lot of our players have stepped up at different roles over the past couple weeks with some injuries,” Gromala said. “We’ve had successes, so we’re definitely ready for a battle.”

Contact Gina Butkovich at [email protected]