LEBANON, Tenn. (Oct. 30, 2015) â€" Senior Emilee Linkous finished with 10 kills and a .296 attack percentage while junior Samantha Bruinius had 11 kills and added eight digs, but it came in a losing effort as the Milligan College volleyball team fell to Cumberland University 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-21, 25-13) Friday afternoon at the Dallas Floyd Recreation Center.
 
The Buffaloes (17-12) played the first three sets close as neither of the first three games were decided by more than four, but was unable to get over the hump or string much together in a fourth set that would have forced a fifth frame. Cumberland (13-15) won its second match after losing seven straight, while Milligan lost its second after winning six straight.
 
Trailing one set to zero, the Buffs turned a 9-5 score into a one-point margin at 10-9, and then went on to tie it at 12 thanks to two Bulldog attack errors and a kill from Linkous. The two teams then went back and forth and with the score knotted at 19, a 3-0 spurt from Milligan ending on another kill by Linkous gave the Buffs their largest lead of the match at 22-19.
 
Cumberland, however, did not go down quietly and responded to tie it at 22 before a kill from Bruinius and another from Marissa Langford put Milligan up 24-23, where a Bulldog attack error ended the second set in the Buffs' favor.
 
In the first set, Milligan led 6-3 before the Bulldogs scored three straight to tie it. Seven more ties later, Cumberland went ahead by two for the first time in the match at 15-13, and then expanded its lead to four at 20-16.
 
Two kills by Linkous and Langford got the Buffs to within two at 20-18 in the opening set, and then down 23-19, two Bulldogs attack errors again made it a two-point set at 23-21. Two kills by Cumberland's Michelle Evans sandwiched around a kill by Bruinius ended the set at 25-22 and gave the Bulldogs a 1-0 advantage.
 
The Buffs stayed close again in the third set and never trailed by more than one until a 6-1 Cumberland run gave the Bulldogs some breathing room at 15-9. Milligan tried to make it a battle, getting within three at 19-16 thanks to an ace from Linkous. The Buffs then scored three straight points, involving two kills from Bruinius, to get within three at 24-21, but it was too little, too late.
 
Up next, the Buffs return home to the Steve Lacy Fieldhouse to battle the second-place team in the Appalachian Athletic Conference, Union College, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 6:30 p.m., before playing their final two AAC matches on the road.