WISE, Va. (Sept. 17, 2015) â€" The Milligan College volleyball team was never able to put a strong run together and only held leads early in the first and second sets, and eventually fell to the University of Virginia's College at Wise 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-19) Thursday night at Greear Gymnasium.

With the defeat, the Buffaloes' record dipped back to .500 at 6-6 and ended a two-match winning streak, while UVa.-Wise snapped a five-match losing streak in its first home match of the season to raise its record to 4-6.

Marissa Langford and Jenna Headrick led the Buffs with eight kills each, while Langford added 13 digs and Emilee Linkous had seven kills. Additionally, Jessica Davenport dished out 27 assists, Grace Ann Moorhouse had 20 digs, and Samantha Bruinius 10 digs to go along with five kills.

After the Buffs he1d early leads at 4-3, 8-7 and 10-9 in the first set, the Cavaliers used an 8-3 run to make it 17-12, and then expanded their lead to six twice at 19-13 and 21-15 and then to seven at 23-16 before winning the set 25-18. The Cavs were able to run away with the set by playing nearly mistake-free volleyball as they only made two errors during the set, forcing the Buffs to rely on their attackers to generate points, which they did on 14 of their 18 tallies.

Milligan's 14 kills in the first set came from four players as Langford and Bruinius each had four, and Headrick and Linkous each had three. Davenport started her night off with 13 assists and two service aces, and Moorhouse had nine digs.

In the second set, the Buffs only leads came at 1-0 and 2-1, but they were able to stay close and never trailed by more than three until after halfway through the set when the Cavs went up 17-13 and expanded their lead to 23-14 after a 7-0 run. The Cavs took the second set by 10 at 25-15, and the Buffs lone bright spot was Bruinius with six digs.

In the third set, the Buffs did not go away without a fight, and after 12 ties in the first 30 points of the set, it was tied 15-15 before the Cavs used four straight points to start to pull away. Milligan got back to within two points twice at 20-18 and 21-19, but could not get any closer as the Cavs used another 4-0 run to win it 25-19 and finish the sweep.

Davenport had 10 assists in the final frame and was joined by eight digs from Moorhouse, three aces and two kills by Linkous, and three kills by Headrick and Bailey Thomas.

Next up, the Buffs will get another crack at it with two Appalachian Athletic Conference matches on Tuesday, Sept. 22, and Friday, Sept. 25, of next week at Bluefield College and Truett-McConnell College respectively. Milligan will then be two matches away from returning home on Oct. 2 after being on the road for over a month.