Milligan College, Tenn. (Aug. 27, 2010) --- The Milligan College Lady Buffs opened the 2010 season with a 3-0 win against former AAC foe UVA-Wise and a 3-1 loss against Shorter University (Rome, Ga.) on Friday afternoon in the Milligan Mountain Madness at Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.

In the first game of the afternoon, the Lady Buffs narrowly took the first set by a score of 27-25. The second and third sets saw Milligan pull away from the Lady Cavs as they took 25-15 and 25-8 set victories to claim the match.

Chelsea Spivey (Gate City, Va.) led the way for the Lady Buffs with 28 assists and two blocks. Bianca Burnett (Cookeville, TN) and Kendra Fiddler (Colorado Springs, Colo.) recorded nine and six kills respectively. Senior Ashley Agin (Atlanta, Ga.) led the squad in digs with 10, while Burnett and former Dobyns-Bennett standout Morgan Rutledge (Kingsport, Tenn.) had nine digs apiece.

In the second game, the Lady Buffs came up short 25-22 in the first set, but then rallied to take the second set over Shorter 25-18. However, the Lady Buffs were unable to keep that momentum going as they fell in the third and fourth sets.

Spivey led Milligan with 40 assists and 12 digs. Rutledge had 29 digs, four spikes and two kills while Burnett had 12 kills, eight digs and four spikes.

“It was a tough loss,” Head Coach Doneva Bays said. “It was the first of the season so it stings a little bit. We showed a lot of good things out there, but we had so many unforced errors. We will change those and hopefully do better tomorrow. Overall, I'm happy with the first day of the tournament.

Milligan returns to action tomorrow at 12 p.m. when they face Trevecca Nazarene University, and at 2 p.m. when they face Southern Virginia University.