BUFFALO, N.Y. – Rutgers volleyball went to five sets for the second-straight day falling just short of the reverse sweep of Buffalo at Alumni Arena.

The Scarlet Knights fell behind after the Bulls won the first two frames 25-18 and 25-20 before coming back to force the deciding set with identical 25-20 victories in sets three and four. The fifth frame was tied at 14-14 before the hosts pulled out the match win with a 16-15 victory.

The win improved Buffalo to 2-1 on the season. Rutgers, meanwhile, fell to 1-2 overall.

• Sophomore Aspen Maxwell made it two matches in a row with a career-high in kills with a match-high 21. She was one of three Scarlet Knights in double-figure kills, joined by junior Zora Hardison and sophomore Natalie Robinson with 13 each. Robinson hit .429 on the afternoon.
• Sophomore Lily Bolen tied her career mark in assists for the second-straight match putting up 51 helpers.
• At the service line, RU served up seven aces from six different Scarlet Knights with graduate student Lauren Wilcock coming off the bench for a pair.
• For the defense, sophomore Alleigh Dutton came up with a match-high 16 digs while Hardison led the block with a pair of solo stops.

• SET 1 (18-25) | Tied early at 4-4, Buffalo took a 7-1 run to take the lead and stayed in front by hitting .550 for the frame. Aspen Maxwell, on the attack, saw RU trail 18-14, but the Scarlet Knight would not draw closer. Zora Hardison put away four kills.

• SET 2 (20-25) | The two squads were knotted up at double-figures at 10-10, but the Bulls used a 10-4 burst and swung a match-best .560 to go up 2-0. A Hardison kill had RU down 20-16 and a Buffalo service error had the Scarlet Knights trailing 23-19. Hardison and Maxwell both collected a trio of kills on five attempts.

• SET 3 (25-20) | Rutgers flipped the script and took the set as Maxwell collected six kills and the Scarlet Knights held the Bulls to a .077 attack percentage. A pair of Bull errors and back-to-back kills from Maxwell prompted the hosts to call time with RU up 11-7. From there, Rutgers never trailed and fended off the Bulls as they pulled within a point on three occasions. Maxwell added six kills to her stat line.

• SET 4 (25-20) | The Scarlet Knights tied the match up by the previous set's same score, enduring eight ties and five lead changes. Behind 17-16, Rutgers outscored Buffalo 8-3 down the stretch, which included kills from four different Knights and four errors from the Bulls. Maxwell hit .700 with seven kills on 10 attempts as RU hit a match-best .342.

• SET 5 (14-16) | The match was a battle to the very end. Rutgers came back from a five-point deficit to tie the final frame at 9-9, marking the first of three ties in deciding the winner. One of Natalie Robinson's four kills, an ace by Alleigh Dutton, and a jostle at the net in favor of Hardison evened the set at 14-14. Buffalo, however, got the next two successful attacks to win the match.

• Rutgers volleyball returns to action next weekend in Fairfield, Connecticut, taking on Dartmouth, LIU and host Sacred Heart.