COLUMBIA, S.C. (Nov. 8, 2014) â€" Though the stats would never tell, the Milligan College volleyball team fell in a close match Saturday afternoon against Columbia College 3-2 (25-22, 23-25, 18-25, 25-17, 15-8).
 
Despite the loss, Milligan (16-16, 10-4 Appalachian Athletic Conference) retained its third-place seat in the AAC, due in part to Reinhardt University's loss to Bryan College Saturday.
 
Just like their match against St. Andrews on Friday evening, the Buffaloes were forced to play five long games, with Columbia scoring 18 or more points in games one through four and the winning 15 points in game five.
 
Game one saw the Buffs down 14-7, but their resiliency shortened the Columbia lead to one point (23-22) before two attacks from Emily Oberlin finished the game for a Koala victory.
 
Milligan took an early lead in game two, and that lead provided the edge they needed to take the closest game of the evening, 25-23, to tie the match at 1-1.
 
The momentum from the last game continued in game three as Milligan went on a 10-point run, jumpstarted by two kills from Charlie Bateman, to capture the lead and the win, 25-18.
 
However, from there, the tank seemed to run dry for the Buffs, as they fell in game four 25-17 and in game five 15-8. Service aces and kills from Columbia took their toll, as Milligan found itself just shy of a rally in both games.
 
Statistically, Milligan had a stellar day. Emilee Linkous led the Buffs in both kills (11) and blocks (4 block assists), as Jessica Davenport recorded another double-double with 35 assists and 11 digs, her ninth of the season. She was one of four Buffs who hit double digits in digs in the match with the other three being Kaitlyn Round (20), Samantha Bruinius (20) and Jadin Foster (11).
 
Foster recorded half of the Buffs total services aces, making four of the total eight on the day, and Bateman once again led the team in hit percentage, hitting .500 on 10 attempts with no errors.
 
With the regular season out of the way, the real test for Milligan will be the AAC tournament, scheduled for Nov. 13-14. Milligan enters as the three seed, behind Bryan College and Union College, and will likely see the Columbia Fighting Koalas again in the tournament.