MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Aug. 22, 2016) â€" Samantha Bruinius, Marissa Langford and Charlie Bateman were key factors in a victory for the Milligan College volleyball team Monday evening in the team's home opener. The trio combined for 41 kills as Milligan defeated Point Park University 3-1 (25-22, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22) at Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.
 
Bruinius and Bateman, both seniors, tallied 16 and 11 kills, respectively, to help Milligan (2-2) jump out to a 2-0 lead. Langford, who saw her first action in game two, was then instrumental down the stretch as she tallied a pair of kills at the end of the second and third games before finishing the match with a kill on five of Milligan's last seven points.
 
"Our goal is to win all our home games and at least half on the road," Head Coach Doneva Bays said after the win. "Of course that's a starting goal; we want to win more than half on the road, but setting the stage at home with a win is extremely important. I think coming off a loss from yesterday and playing three days straight, our girls did a really nice job of adjusting. We played extremely good defense and had fewer errors on offense than we did over the weekend."
 
Setter Kellee Geren earned 53 assists for a career high in her freshman campaign, targeting eight Buffs who earned at least one kill. Defensively, Bruinius led Milligan with 22 digs while Grace Ann Moorhouse had 20, Jadin Foster had 14, and Geren had 13. Milligan finished with 57 kills as a team, compared to 46 from the visiting Pioneers.
 
After a Bruinius kill made it 1-1 in the opening game, Milligan went on a 4-0 spurt to take the lead 5-1 and never trailed through the rest of game one. It was close the whole way, however, as Point Park had it within one point four times, including 23-22. Game two went an opposite way as Point Park took the first seven points only to watch as Milligan then rallied for the next six, and game two was back and forth from there.
 
The rest of the match was close as well, with neither team leading by more than six points. In fact, Milligan faced a six point deficit at 15-11 in the final game before closing out the match on a 14-7 run.
 
"Winning today will help in the tournament (this weekend) to put the focus on protecting our home court," Bays said. "I'm excited that we have four more matches before we hit conference play next week. We would still like to work out some kinks and find some chemistry."
 
Next up, Milligan will host the ninth annual Mountain Madness tournament on Friday-Saturday, Aug. 26-27. The tournament will feature Milligan matches at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Friday as well as 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday. The Buffs will then open up Appalachian Athletic Conference play on Tuesday, Aug. 30, at home against Union College, last year's AAC tournament champion.