MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Oct. 11, 2016) â€" Three times the Buffaloes faced match point and three times the Buffaloes denied it Tuesday night in a big win for the Milligan College volleyball team. The Buffs won the last five points of the match and defeated Appalachian Athletic Conference foe Bluefield College in five sets, 25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 22-25, 16-14.
 
The win improved Milligan (22-6 overall) to a league-best 11-2 mark and to 12-1 at Steve Lacy Fieldhouse this season. It also featured a career high of 27 kills from senior Samantha Bruinius, a career high 56 assists from freshman Kellee Geren, and the 1,000th career kill from junior Marissa Langford.
 
The last three games were all about runs, and that was how Milligan came away victorious, by winning the last five points. Facing a deficit of 14-11 in the fifth set after squandering a two games to none lead, a resilient Milligan squad ran the table on the closing minutes.
 
Bailey Thomas had a kill to make it 14-12, a couple of Bluefield errors including a block by Thomas made it 14-all. Grace Ann Moorhouse followed with one of the most improbable kills in a clutch effort play where a diving dig resulted in the ball landing on Bluefield's side of the net. A final Bluefield error on Moorhouse's last serve then gave Milligan the win.
 
"I am extremely proud of our fight and will to win," Head Coach Doneva Bays said after the match. "It was a well-fought match and proof of how competitive our conference is. Our goal is always to win 3-0, especially at home, so winning the first two sets and leading late in the third set is where we wanted to be. However, we had a few mental errors and Bluefield continued to make big plays to get back in the match."
 
Indeed, Milligan was firing on all cylinders in the first two frames. Bruinius had seven kills in the first, Langford had six including one on the final point, and the Buffs were hitting a ridiculous .517 as a team at the end of the opening frame. Even after cooling off in the second, the Buffs did plenty to take the 2-0 lead with wins of 25-19 and 25-21 in the first two sets.
 
Bluefield (14-12, 4-9 AAC) clawed back with late runs in the third and fourth, taking five straight points near the end of the third set before taking four straight points near the end of the fourth set to draw the match even. It was then tied at 11-11 in the fifth when Bluefield won three straight to go ahead 14-11 where the Rams looked to have the match won.
 
The match was similar to the most previous meeting between Milligan and Bluefield, when the Buffs won the first two but still needed the fifth to come away with a win. Bruinius and Thomas both had career highs in kills in that match, and Bruinius' 22 kills marked her previous career high and the only previous time the senior had recorded more than 20 kills in a match. She had 27 in Tuesday's win.
 
For Langford, the 18 kills in Tuesday's win against Bluefield was two shy of her career high, but it gave her 1,003 for her career total. Langford joined Bruinius in the 1,000-kill club as Bruinius reached the milestone earlier this season, shortly before Moorhouse reached the 1,000-dig club.
 
Moorhouse led a strong defensive effort with 31 digs, and four other Buffs reached double figures in that category. Bruinius had 16, Alyssa Rupert 14, Geren 11 and Jadin Foster 10.
 
Charlie Bateman and Thomas each finished with seven kills.
 
Milligan has two more home matches this week as the Buffs host an AAC trimatch on Saturday, Oct. 15. Joining Milligan at Steve Lacy Fieldhouse will be Reinhardt University (11 a.m.) and St. Andrews University (3 p.m.). The neutral-site match between Reinhardt and SAU will be at 1 p.m.