Volleyball season ends in NAIA championship

MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Nov. 23, 2019) – The Milligan College volleyball team came out strong in the first set of the NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship Opening Round but were unable to pick up the match win and fell to Martin Methodist College in four sets (25-16, 19-25, 16-25, 14-25) Saturday afternoon in Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.

Milligan came out dominant in the first set, recording 17 kills and winning 25-16. Julie Dockery led the Buffs with seven kills and Carley Gregory had five. Five of the Buffs first seven points were off kills.

The RedHawks bounced back from the first set and won the next three sets. Martin Methodist went from not leading at all in the first set to only giving up the lead once in the rest of the match. The RedHawks went on several runs to put themselves at a comfortable lead in all three sets.

Martin Methodist was led by Rebecka Cronin who had a match high of 20 kills. Sydney Arnold had 41 assists and Hayley Brisendine had 24 digs.

Both teams finished the night with 53 kills but Milligan made 23 attack errors compared to the RedHawks 16. Gregory led the Buffs with 15 kills and Dockery was behind her with 14. Julia Codispoti and Alyssa Gibson had nine and eight respectively. Layla Grant led the defense with 16 digs.

Kellee Geren finished her Milligan career with her 17th double-double with a match high of 45 assists and 14 digs. She finishes with a record setting 4,902 career assists and 1,316 on the season. She will also finish with 1,306 career digs.

The Buffs finish the season with an overall record of 24-11. They won the AAC North Division and qualified for the national championship opening round for the second year in a row.