MOORE, Okla. – The 2018 volleyball season got underway for Mid-America Christian University on Saturday afternoon, and with it, the Faith Avalos Era. The Evangels, despite their youth, played well for most of the day, emerging victorious in both of their matches.

MACU (2-0) swept away the Crowley's Ridge College Pioneers (1-1) in the first match, winning 25-18, 25-19, 25-15; and in the last match of the day, they took a four-set win from Randall University (0-2) 25-21, 23-25, 25-18, 25-21.

MACU held a small lead early in the first set, but midway through the stanza, Alexa Bass stepped back and served MACU on an 8-0 run that was started off by three straight aces for the junior transfer. Crowley's Ridge cut the deficit to three once, but they never got closer, and MACU took the first set 25-18.

The Evangels sprinted out to a 9-2 edge in the second frame, and they eventually built a 19-6 lead, but CRC dug in and whittled away late in the set. The Pioneers put together a 12-3 run to close the gap to 22-18, but Da'Jah Thompson blasted a kill to stop the surge, and MACU held off CRC to win the second frame 25-19.

The teams split the first 16 points of the third frame evenly, but MACU used a 12-2 run to turn an 8-8 tie into a 20-10 lead, and the Evangels did not look back, taking the set 25-15 and the match 3-0.

Thompson led all players in the match with 16 kills, and she hit a blistering .522 in the match for the Evangels. Bass (22) and Morgan Van Meir (17) each had double-digit assists, and Kaylie Walker led the way with nine digs. Bass also added four service aces in the match.

MACU controlled the play in the first set of the night cap as well, but Randall rebounded to take a 24-18 lead late in the second set. The Evangels nearly erased that margin before dropping the set 25-23, but MACU took the last two sets comfortably 25-18 and 25-21.

Thompson and Annika Barnett each had 11 kills to lead the MACU offense in the match against Randall. Bass posted a double-double with 23 assists and 23 digs, Van Meir added 14 assists, and Gabrielle Poling (17) and Meagan Plunk (11) also reached double figures in digs.

MACU will return to the court to open Sooner Athletic Conference play two weeks from now when they head to Plainview Texas to battle the Wayland Baptist University Pioneers (0-4). The match is slated for August 31 at 7 p.m.