HOLLAND, Mich. – The key points didn't go Cornell's way Thursday afternoon in a competitive 25-23, 25-22, 25-19 NCAA regional quarterfinal volleyball loss to 10th-ranked Millikin inside DeVos Fieldhouse.  
 
In a rematch of last year's NCAA first-round match won by the Rams, Millikin rallied from late deficits in each of the first two sets and then ended Cornell's tremendous season with an 11-5 closing run in the third.
 
Making its 11th NCAA appearance and fourth straight, No. 7 seed Cornell bowed out of the 64-team field with a 19-12 record. The 12-time reigning Midwest Conference regular-season champions entered the tournament on a 12-match winning streak.
 
Seven of Cornell's 12 defeats this season came against nationally-ranked opponents.
 
Millikin (30-5) advanced to Friday's regional semifinal at 3:30 p.m. (central time) against Dubuque (24-9), which rallied from a 2-0 sets deficit to beat 16th-ranked Case Western Reserve (24-8) in five.
 
Thursday's loss marked an abrupt collegiate end for two of Cornell's all-time volleyball greats in Ilah Perez-Johnson and Clare Green. Perez-Johnson delivered her 17th double-double of the season with 14 kills and 14 digs. Green distributed 29 assists, bringing her final school-record career total to 4,157.
 
Perez-Johnson broke Kori Sims' long-standing 2004 record for kills in a season with 488. The fifth-year outside hitter also set a new program standard for attack attempts in a season with 1,296, topping Kristin Paczosa's 2007 mark.  
 
The Rams were the first team to score 20 points in the opening two sets. A kill by first-year Mia Tubbs gave Cornell a 22-17 lead in Set 1 before the Big Blue charged back.
 
Set 2 was tied 11 times as Cornell inched ahead 20-19 on a spike from Tubbs. Millikin responded with a 6-2 set-ending spurt.
 
In Set 3, the Rams climbed out of an early 7-3 hole and took the lead at 12-10 on an errant Millikin swing. The Big Blue scored four unanswered points to regain the lead. Cornell trimmed the margin to 19-16, but couldn't get any closer down the stretch.
 
Cornell outhit the Big Blue for the match, .103 to .100. Millikin fired eight aces and capitalized on seven service errors by the Rams.
 
Junior libero Ella Becker posted a match-high 24 digs and went 15-of-15 from the service line with an ace. Tubbs had six kills in her NCAA debut. First-year Ally Olmstead contributed five kills and five blocks. Carly Puffer and Perez-Johnson added four blocks apiece.   
 
Cornell brings back four starters, plus its libero, for next season.