What a difference a year can make. The volleyball teams at the University at Buffalo and Niagara had struggling records for as long as anyone could remember.

The Bulls this year have turned in their best showing in the Mid-American Conference since joining in 1998; the Purple Eagles are holding on to second place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Buffalo is having its best season since joining the MAC in 1998, 5-5 in the conference and 14-9 overall. The UB record for most wins in Division I was 22 in 1995 when the Bulls were in the Mid-Continent Conference.

UB has not had a winning season since going 18-16 in 1996. Since joining the MAC in 1998,UB is just 19-167.

It’s a losing culture that first-year coach Todd Kress has worked to change.

“When I came in there were great kids here,” Kress said. “When you have good people, you can accomplish great things. . . . When we came in we just tried to change their mind-set, change the expectation level of one another, just an unwavering expectation of excellence, an unwavering determination. We tried to instill that in them very early and told them if they wanted to change things in the fall it started with hard work in the spring.”

The work is paying off as the Bulls are in third place in the MAC East. They host sixth-place Bowling Green (2-8) at 7 p. m. Friday and second-place Miami (7-3) at 5 p. m. Saturday.

“We have to learn to expect to win,” said junior middle blocker Kelsey Lueders. “It’s been a rough couple years but we are at a point where we need to expect to win every night out and we need to train like that also. It’s just developing that mind-set. We split every conference weekend so far so we’ve had some ups and downs, but we have been fortunate enough to learn from our mistakes and build.”

For Niagara, the last three seasons have been a struggle. The Purple Eagles’ last winning season was 2005 (16-10 overall, 6-3 in the MAAC). Since then, they haven’t come close, going 18-66 overall and 12-42 in conference play.

Last season was a building year as Niagara had one of the youngest rosters in Division I and went just 6-24 overall, 4-14 in the MAAC.

But coach Susan Clements kept the team focused on its performance and improvement rather than on the outcome and is reaping the rewards.

“All last year we talked about learning, that we’re going to get there, that this is to get us prepared for the future,” Clements said. “We just wanted to be competitive, win or lose, and that’s what we kept our focus on. All spring, we talked about commitment and they worked hard over the summer and we came in and put it together and got some confidence.”

A year of maturity seems to have helped the Purple Eagles turn the corner. The team is 17-7 overall and 10-3 in the MAAC. It had an eight-match win streak snapped Sunday in a five-game loss to conference leader Fairfield.

“We’re definitely more experienced and people are more confident, too,” said sophomore Sam Morgan, who has the second-longest active double-digit dig streak in the nation at 54 matches.

Niagara will host Loyola (6-6) at 2 p. m. Saturday and Rider (1-11) at noon Sunday.

Women’s soccer

For the first time in school history, Buffalo State will host a State University of New York Athletic Conference playoff game.

The Bengals secured the No. 4 seed with their 2-0 win over Brockport on Saturday and will host No. 5 Geneseo at 3:15 p. m. Saturday at Coyer Field.

Buffalo State finished the SUNYAC season at 5-3-1 while Geneseo was two points behind at 4-3-2. The Blue Knights won the last meeting between the teams Friday, netting the game-winning goal with 1:45 left in regulation for a 2-1 win.

Even with that loss, the Bengals are in their best stretch of the season, going 5-1-1 over the last seven games. Senior Leighana Krzyzanowski leads the team with eight goals and 19 points while junior Barb Kiliszek (Lancaster) has 16 points.

Buffalo State hosts Elmira at 3 p. m. today in its final non-conference match.

The winner of Saturday’s game will play No. 1-seed Oneonta in the conference semifinals Nov. 6.

Football

The Bengals (1-6) will host William Patterson (3-4) on Saturday with the game time changed to 11:30 a. m. at Coyer Field to avoid a conflict with the women’s soccer playoff game.

Buffalo State has lost its last four games while William Patterson dropped a 12-10 decision to Cortland last weekend.

Cross country

Looking for a top finish in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference meet will be Canisius junior Maura Frauenhofer (Nardin) and senior Vasilis Kariolis. Both runners earned personal- best times at the University of Albany Invitational on Saturday. Frauenhofer ran the 5K course in 17:57 while Kariolis ran the men’s 8K course in 25:28.

The MAAC meet will be Friday in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

Buffalo will head to the Mid- American Conference championships Saturday in Athens, Ohio. The men’s team is ranked 15th in the Northeast Regional poll while fellow conference schools Kent State (10), Miami (11), Eastern Michigan (12) and Central Michigan (13) are ranked in the Great Lakes Regional poll.

Senior Dennis Pollow (Wilson) entered grad school at UB after running for Penn State and became eligible midway through the season. He finished second at the BGSU Falcon Invitational on Oct. 17—considered a preview of the MAC Championships.

Other contenders on the men’s side include Jacob Hagen (Sweet Home), who has two top-10 finishes, and Ryan Bloom, who finished fifth at the MAC meet last year to earn First Team honors.