The UB Women’s Basketball team had advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2018, but they came into the 2019 MAC Tournament as the #4 seed, and had to face #5 Kent State in the first round. Kent had beaten UB in the final regular season game by 9 points, but the Bulls ran away from Kent in the first round of the MAC Tournament and defeated them by 33.
This set up a rematch with #1 Central Michigan, the defending MAC Champions, and also a Sweet 16 team the year before. In the their regular season matchups, the Chippewas had twice defeated Buffalo.