Milligan Sweeps St. Andrews and Lees-McRae as Win Streak Reaches Four

MILLIGAN, Tenn. – Coming off an Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) sweep on Tuesday, the Milligan University Buffaloes finally returned to Steve Lacy Fieldhouse for their first battle within the AAC at home against St. Andrews on Saturday morning, in addition to playing NCAA DII Lees-McRae in a non-conference matchup later in the afternoon. The opener of the day was a straight sweep by the Buffs, as they took it to the Knights, before similarly taking control against the Bobcats in a second straight-sets win.

Milligan's victory over SAU in straight sets was a heavily dominated by the Buffs. The Buffs trailed for only one point in the entire match. They came away with a 25-16, 25-18, 25-8 triumph to go to 3-1 in AAC play.

 Shelby Miller terminated seven of her 11 swings and made zero errors to compile a .636 attacking clip. Ella Maiden had 6 kills on eight attacks with one error to convert at .625 for the bout, while Avery Maiden had seven kills on 20 attacks with a trio of errors. A total of 20 assists were dished out by Kolbie Greene and Faith Wilson added nine of her own in the final set.

Only Greene had double-digit digs, as the Knights committed 21 attacking errors over the course of the tilt, not allowing many chances for the Buffs to pad their defensive statistics. They could still block, however, as E. Maiden had three block assists and a solo stuff in the matchup, leading the squad. Addison Varney was the other Buffalo to have a solo block, while Isabel Cameron, Greene, Kiley Haas, A. Maiden and Kira Ryan added single assisted rejections.

It seemed as if things were going to continue rolling in match number two against the Bobcats, as Milligan built their advantage to as large as 23-9 in the opening set. After a brief comeback attempt from their opposition, the Buffaloes entered the second set with a 25-15 win over Lees-McRae to start the match.

Set number two did not follow the same pattern. From the first serve, both squads traded punches, as the first timeout of the stanza was taken by Milligan with a 15-13 deficit on their hands. The Buffaloes would battle back out of the timeout to a 21-19 lead, when the Bobcats took their first timeout of the set, looking to change the flow of the match. That attempt was thwarted by the Buffs, who kept the status quo to earn a 25-21 victory in the second set.

The third set held more of the same back-and-forth play, as Milligan held the advantage for most of the first half of the set, but by just one or two points. Then, Milligan began to distance themselves by scoring four straight points after an 11-11 start. After Lees-McRae had a surge of their own, tying the score 20-20, the Buffs took care of business. They ended up finishing the sweep with five of the final six points to snag a 25-21 triumph in the final set.

Maiden's 13 kills on 26 tries with just two errors amounted to a .423 attacking clip, which trailed only her sister E. Maiden, who hit .533 with 10 kills on 15 attacks with just two miscues. Miller also added nine kills on 35 attempts with a pair of errors. Greene took the lion's share of the assists, with 31 for the match.

Greene's 14 digs, flowed by A. Maiden's 13 and Zoie Larkins' 12 led the squad in pickups. Sierra Still added nine more to the tally. E. Maiden, Ryan and Miller had solo blocks in the victory.

After a pair of sweeps, Milligan is riding a four-match winning streak and will face off with Tennessee Wesleyan on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 6:30 p.m. in Athens, Tenn., looking for their fifth triumph in a row.