OKLAHOMA CITY - In the first two sets of their match on Friday evening, the Mid-America Christian University volleyball team had 20 kills, compared to only 18 for the Oklahoma Panhandle State university Aggies. However, due to their own mistakes, the Evangels found themselves down two sets to none. In the third, the Evangels were able to limit the mistakes, and everything changed.
MACU (9-10, 5-5 SAC) posted nearly twice as many kills as errors in the final three sets, and the Evangels rallied to take a thrilling win away from the Aggies (4-15, 3-8 SAC) 20-25, 15-25, 25-22, 25-18, 15-12.Bass
The lead changed hands four times in the first half of the first set, but with MACU leading 12-9, OPSU seized control. The Aggies mounted a 10-3 run, but in that stretch, OPSU notched only four kills. The run gave OPSU a 19-15 lead, but MACU closed the gap to two twice. With MACU trailing 22-20, the Evangels committed a service error, a setting error, and an attack error, and OPSU took the set 25-20.
The teams exchanged lengthy runs in the early moments of the second frame, as OPSU used a 5-0 run to take a 5-2 lead, but MACU answered with a 6-0 spurt to reclaim the edge 8-5. With the score tied at 10 in the middle of the frame, OPSU again took command, rattling off 14 of the next 16 points on their way to a 25-15 set victory to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The last three MACU points in that second frame, though, came on two kills and a block, and that helped MACU light the fire that helped them turn things around. The momentum shift helped the Evangels take an early lead in the second set, but MACU struggled to stretch the margin out. MACU did eventually push the advantage to five at 12-7, and after the teams traded 4-0 spurts, the lead was 16-11 MACU. With the Evangels up 20-15 late, OPSU mounted one last ditch effort to complete the sweep, launching a 7-1 run to take a 22-21 lead, but an Aggie service error knotted the score, and the Evangels never looked back. Alexa Bass served an ace to give MACU the lead for good, and Annika Barnett and Da'Jah Thompson followed with consecutive kills to extend the match with a 25-22 MACU set win.
With momentum now firmly on the MACU bench, the Evangels led wire-to-wire in the fourth stanza. A pair of 6-1 runs early helped MACU build a 12-4 lead, and while OPSU did manage to battle back to within four points twice, MACU held off both charges, and the Evangels forced a decisive fifth set by taking a 25-18 win in the frame.
After MACU took the first two points of the fifth set, OPSU strung together six points in a row to take a 6-2 lead. MACU closed to within three at 7-4 when a call went the way of OPSU to give the Aggies an 8-4 lead and force the playing area change. The call seemed to ignite the spark in the Evangels, and MACU immediately got two kills from Elena Hadzhieva and an acr from Barnett as a part of a 4-0 run to tie the score at 8-8. OPSU took the lead at 9-8, 10-9, and 11-10, but each time MACU tied the score immediately, and with the score knotted at 11, the Evangels finished off the comeback. A kill from Thompson ignited what became a 4-0 run as MACU took a 14-11 lead, and after OPSU fought off match point once, Thompson finished things off with a kill, and the Evangels capped off the evening with a 15-12 win in the fifth set to take the 3-2 win.
Thompson was the only Evangel to reach double figures in kills, notching 13, but Hadzhieva and Barnett each had nine, Skylar Brower had seven, and Dianne Walter notched six. Bass picked up another double-double with 32 assists and 14 digs, and Maegan Plunk had 18 digs, while Kaylie Walker and Hadzhieva each had a dozen digs. Bass added five service aces, and Walter participated in four blocks for MACU as well.
MACU will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when they host the Wayland Baptist University Pioneers (7-11, 6-5 SAC). The match is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
