Volleyball kicks off 2019 season Friday

MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Aug, 28, 2019) – Coming off a successful 2018 campaign, the Milligan College women's volleyball team will begin their season on Friday with their annual Milligan Mountain Madness Tournament held at Steve Lacy Fieldhouse. The Buffs will begin the tournament Friday by playing Midway at 4 p.m. and Keiser at 8 p.m.

Last season's accomplishments

The Buffs finished last season 27-9 overall and 17-3 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference. They finished first place in the North Division of the conference, not losing a single game in the month of October, and went on a 15 game win streak during the season. While their regular season run was impressive, their postseason run was a historical one, as the Buffs were the runners-up in the AAC tournament and clinched a bid to the NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship. This was the first time the Buffs had clinched a national tournament bid since 1996. They won the opening round match of the national tournament against Cornerstone out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and continued on to the final site of the tournament in Sioux City, Iowa. However, the Buffs fell short in Iowa losing all three of their matchups.

Head coach Doneva Bays, who is entering her 12^th coaching season, was a part of the 1996 national tournament team, says that the team is hungry to return to the national site. "We want to win at the final site of nationals this year, not just get there," Bays says. To help encourage and motivate the team to accomplish this goal, Milligan's focus this season is "No Excuses."

Key returners | top newcomers | significant loses

The Buffs return 11 players from last season, and have added five new players this year who are expected to make a big impact on the court. The team lost two seniors from last year's squad, Caroline Little and Alyssa Rupert.

Little suffered a career ending injury at the beginning of her senior year and was unable to play for the season.

Rupert was the AAC libero of the year in 2018, earned All-Region honors, and was an NAIA All-American honorable mention. Rupert set new school records in 2018 for digs in a season with 834 and digs per set at 6.62 and finished top five nationally in both of those categories. Bays has faith that this year's team will be able to take on Rupert's role on the court but says the hardest thing to replace is Rupert's heart and grit, "I never had to ask her to give me more, she always gave me everything she had."

The Buffs will be returning three time All-Conference setter Kellee Geren, All-Conference middle hitter Julie Dockery, and All-Freshman outside hitter Elise Gregory. Bays expects junior middle hitter Julie Codispoti to make an impact amongst the returners as well. "Our defense will be anchored by sophomores Layla Grant and Cameron McConnell," Bays adds.

"We are excited to add more depth to our offense with newcomers Carley Gregory and Sarah Grace Larkey," Bays said. Gregory is a junior transfer from Eastern Florida State College and Larkey joins the team from Unicoi County High School.

National recognition

Milligan goes into this season receiving votes in the NAIA Women's Volleyball Coaches' Preseason Top 25 Poll. Bays hopes that the team will be able to break into the top 25 throughout the season, "I think this recognition gives us reason to hold ourselves to a higher standard" Bays says.

Bays says that in order for the team to accomplish their goal of winning the conference and returning to nationals, every match is as important as the next. "Every match is a big match and every match matters. Our matchups with Reinhardt, Point and St. Andrews will be critical because we only play them once."

Appalachian Athletic Conference format

The volleyball conference is split into two divisions, the North Division, and the South Division. The members of one division will only play members of the other division once throughout the season, but will play the members in their own division twice. Milligan will be facing Reinhardt on September 28 at Reinhardt. Reinhardt is also receiving votes in the NAIA Women's Volleyball Coaches' Preseason Top 25 Poll.

Last year, Milligan fell to Reinhardt during regular season play and during the conference tournament. They split with Point, getting beat during regular season, and defeating them in the conference tournament, which gave them the berth to nationals. The Buffs only other conference loss from last year came from Union after the Buffs beat them earlier in the season.

The Buffs will open conference play on September 5 at Bryan College.