Milligan College finished day one of the Milligan Mountain Madness tournament with a split of their two matches on Friday.
The Buffs first game of the tournament, as well as their first game of the season, was a sweep against Midway in straight sets (25-19, 25-20, 25-12). The Buffs then fell to Keiser University in three sets (20-25, 19-25, 17-25) to close out the night.
Milligan Sweeps Midway
Fourteen Buffs saw the court in the first match as Milligan made quick work against Midway. Junior Carley Gregory made her Milligan debut with eight kills and seven digs on the night.
Julia Codispoti led the Buffs offense by adding 10 kills on 19 attempts with a hitting percentage of .474. Codispoti and Gregory combined for 18 kills, which was over half of the total kills the team had during the match which was 32. Kellee Geren had 30 assists, averaging 10 per set. Layla Grant had a match-high of 19 digs and also recorded a match-high of five aces.
Milligan only trailed Midway once during the match, which occurred in the second set.
Midway was led by Alysha Tullar who had 16 kills.
Buffs fall to Keiser in second match
Gregory led the team with 14 kills but the Buffs fell to Keiser in three straight sets. Geren recorded 24 assists for the offense and Grant recorded 13 digs for the defense. Milligan scored the first points in the first and third sets but were unable to secure a strong lead against Keiser.
Keiser was led by Abbie Seward who had a double-double with 16 kills and 10 digs and Jordan Odom who also had a double-double with 10 kills and 12 digs.
Up next
Milligan returns to action Saturday morning for day two of Milligan Mountain Madness. The Buffs will host Michigan-Dearborn at 11 a.m. and Bethel University at 3 p.m. The Buffs will open up Appalachian Athletic Conference play on Thursday, Sept. 5, as they travel to Bryan College.
