DAYTON, Tenn. — Milligan University's women's volleyball team traveled south to Dayton, Tenn., where they competed in their final Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) contest of the regular season against the Lions of Bryan College. The opening three sets were particularly tight, but the Buffaloes took two of the three and then rolled in set four to win the match, 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 25-17).

Milligan took their first lead of the opening set at 5-4 and extended that edge to a commanding 20-13 advantage. The Lions did not go down quietly, as they battled all the way back to a tie score at 23-23. Then, though, the Buffs were fortunate to receive a service error by Bryan and then Erin Littleton terminated the set with a kill, grabbing a 25-23 win.

The largest lead of the second set was three points at 11-8 for the Buffs, until Milligan led 21-19 in the late stages looking for a two-set lead. At that point, the hosts rattled off the final six points of the set to take a 25-21 win over the Buffaloes, knotting the overall score to 1-1.

The third set was looking bleak for the Buffs, as they fell behind by as many as six points at 16-10. Then, Milligan went on an 8-2 run to tie the score at 18-18, giving them life. They would then score five of the next seven points and open up a 23-20 lead. They held off a late run from Bryan and won 25-23.

There was never a doubt in the fourth set, as the Buffs scored nine of the first 10 points in the final frame. Bryan got the game back to a 17-13 deficit, but then Milligan slammed the door shut with eight of the final 12 points to take home a 25-17 triumph and clinch the match, 3-1.

A 20-kill night from Shelby Miller came on 54 swings, as she attacked at .222 for the night. Bella Devoti put down 14 swings on 39 attempts as the other player with 10 or more kills for the Buffaloes. Littleton (9) and Kira Ryan (8) combined for 17 kills on 39 tries and both attacked at better than .300 for the battle. Addison Varney had four kills on 15 swings to round out the list of offensive producers. Faith Wilson dished out 48 of the team's 50 assists, with the others coming from Varney and Grace Sanderson.

A team-best 18 digs were picked up by Sanderson in the win. She was followed by Taylor Brinn and Riley Brinn, who notched 14 and 11, respectively. Wilson tacked on eight pickups, as well. Kyndl Hodge and Miller both had four, and Ryan and Devoti added a pair apiece. Varney and Olivia Schoenstra tallied the final two digs. The Buffaloes' block was huge, as Littleton led the way with seven block assists and Miller was just behind her with six. Varney had three block assists and a solo block, while Ryan supplied three helpers. Devoti had the last block assist, totaling 11 blocks overall as a team.

With the win, the Buffs currently hold the No. 10 seed entering the AAC Tournament on Thursday, Nov. 13 in Kingsport, as they finished their regular season at 8-25, 6-13 AAC. If Truett McConnell falls in one of their final two matches, Milligan will clinch the 10th spot in the event. The tourney begins with play-in matches on Thursday between the No. 10 and No. 7 seeds, as well as the No. 9 and No. 8 seeds at times yet to be decided.