BARBOURVILLE, Ky. (Feb. 28, 2015) â€" Finally, after two weather postponements and what seemed like a winter season that might never end, spring tennis started on Saturday, and the No. 14 Milligan College women's team began with an emphatic 9-0 win over Union College. Milligan's men fell short, 5-4.
 
Milligan's women improved to 2-1 this season and jumped to the top of the Appalachian Athletic Conference with Reinhardt and SCAD Atlanta at 1-0. Reinhardt and SCAD have both defeated Columbia College already this season as the only other league decisions. Milligan's win was its ninth straight in the AAC, dating back to midway through the 2013 season.
 
Senior Caroline Morelli provided her singles victory in flawless fashion, defeating Glenna Young without dropping a game. Morelli was the only Buff on the women's side not to drop a game, although the rest of the team hardly struggled. Rachel Hodas and Sarah Rainwater won their singles matches 6-1, 6-0, and freshman Abigail Allen won hers 6-0, 6-3.
 
In doubles action, Hodas and Rainwater were 8-3 victors on court one, and Morelli and Allen were 8-5 victors on court two. The third doubles and fifth and sixth singles matches went to Milligan as the short-handed Union squad (0-3, 0-1 AAC) was forced to default three points.
 
For Milligan's men (0-2, 0-1 AAC), Colin Bumann and Matias Yanez started the day on a high note with a nail-biting 9-8 (9-7) win at one doubles, but Union (1-2, 1-0 AAC) took the other two doubles points and split the singles matches down the middle at 3-3 en route to the overall victory.
 
Yanez was pushed to a third set super tiebreaker in his court two singles match, but completed a comeback at 2-6, 6-3, 10-5. Bumann, on court one, nearly replicated Yanez's outcome by battling back from a 6-0 loss in the first set but fell closely in the second (6-0, 7-5). It was Jackson Lenoir on court four who matched Yanez with a 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 victory of his own.
 
Rounding out the scoring for Milligan was freshman Braden White who won his match in three sets.
 
Milligan's next match is scheduled to be played at Bluefield State College in Bluefield, West Virginia, on March 7. This will continue a long stretch of road matches as the Buffaloes do not start the home season until March 18, against Reinhardt.