On Friday night, Kent State volleyball had its first Mid-American Conference victory with a sweep over Buffalo. 

On Saturday night, they only managed one match victory in a loss to Akron. 

“What happens the night before, we’ve got to let that go and move on,” coach Don Gromala said. “We did some really good things [on Friday] and got a really good rhythm. We didn’t have that naturally today.” 

Kent had 48 kills and only 11 attacking errors against Buffalo. Against the Zips, the Flashes had 53 kills but 27 attacking errors. 

A little over 37 percent of the kills came in the third match, the only match Kent won. They only had three attacking errors in the third match. 

“We’ve been working on consistent energy throughout the set and throughout the whole season,” senior Ashley Makruski said. “Just trying to get everybody to be on at the same time. I think there are moments when we have it and if we can get it to be consistent we’re going to be able to take down a lot of teams this year.” 

Makruski lead the team with 15 kills, one away from her season best of 16. 

“It’s always working as a team and having my defense behind me and telling me what shots I have,” Makruski said. “I’m working with the coaches and everybody. I can’t do anything by myself.” 

One of her teammates, sophomore Erin Gardner, had 19 digs on the night, more than anyone else on Kent or Akron’s team. Eight of the digs came in the third set.

“Our fight was just a little bit too late,” Gardner said. “We came out for the third set and got that set, but it was just a little too late.” 

Kent State volleyball returns to action on Friday to face Toledo at the MAC center. Toledo has a 0-6 conference record. 

“There was definitely some good things we can take away from this weekend,” Gromala said. “How we played last night and at least how we battled tonight was pretty good. We can build off of that looking forward to next weekend.” 

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