Milligan punches ticket to national championship 

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (Nov. 15, 2019) – The Milligan College volleyball team defeated Truett McConnell Friday evening in Kingsport to advance to the championship match of the Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament and qualify for the NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship for the second year in a row.

Set-by-set

Milligan jumped ahead early in the first set with a 12-4 lead with senior Julie Dockery tallying three kills during that run. The Buffs would go on to defeat the Bears 25-18 with a kill by senior Alyssa Gibson to secure the game winning point. 

The second match was similar to the first with Milligan never losing the lead to defeat Truett 25-20. Back to back kills by junior Julia Codispoti then back to back kills again by junior Carley Gregory gave the Buffs their first four points. Senior Alyssa Gibson led the Buffs with five kills, and Codispoti and Gregory were behind her with four apiece to help make up the 17 kills Milligan had during the second set. 

The Bears fought back in the third set to avoid a three-game sweep and defeated Milligan 29-27. The entire match was back and forth after Truett jumped ahead first with a 6-3 lead and Milligan answered back going on an 8-0 run to make the score 11-6. Truett then fought their way back and tied the score up 12-12. Neither team trailed by more than one point until the very end of the set. Back to back kills by Truett gave them the two points they needed to win the third set.

Milligan then put the game away in the fourth set and defeated the Bears 25-15. The Buffs gained momentum by going on a 15-5 run to make the score 18-8 and carried that momentum until the end of the set. During that run Dockery had four kills to help add to her match leading total of 12.

By the numbers

Kellee Geren tallied on her 16th double-double of the season with 42 assists and 19 digs. She led the Buffs defense tonight with Layla Grant tallying 18 digs, Ashelyn Vandergriff tallying 17 and Cameron McConnell and Paxton Adkins having 11 and 12 apiece. The Buffs defense had a total of 98 digs on the night. 

Geren's main targets for offense were Dockery (12), Gibson with 10 kills, Gregory and Codispoti who had nine kills apiece and Abby Falcone with eight kills. Dockery finished the night with a hitting percentage of .524. The Buffs accounted for 11 blocks with Codispoti having two of her own and assisting with three and Geren and Dockery each assisting with five. 

Up next 

Milligan will face Reinhardt University Saturday afternoon in Kingsport for the AAC tournament championship. Game time is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Kingsport at MeadowView.