OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian volleyball team will look to close out its three-match home stand with a statement Thursday night as the Evangels host nationally 24th-ranked Oklahoma City at 7 p.m. in the Gaulke Activity Center.
LAST TIME OUT
Mid-America Christian (10-7, 8-4 Sooner Athletic Conference), who picked up its first win over Wayland Baptist in 28 tries back on Sept. 6 established its own win streak over the Pioneers, sweeping WBU in straight sets (25-20, 25-11, 25-19) on Monday.
The Evangels outside hitters were nearly unstoppable in the victory, as Hannah Focker recorded her third 20-plus kill match of the season with 21 kills on a .500 attack percentage while Elena Hadzhieva knocked down 13 kills on a .407 percentage off the bench.
Senior setter Alexa Bass tallied 33 assists in the victory, her career-high for a three-set match and her best assist total in a single match during the 2019 season.
SCOUTING THE STARS
Oklahoma City is one of the hottest volleyball teams in the entire NAIA at the moment, entering Thursday's bout with a 21-1 overall record and a perfect 11-0 mark in SAC play after stringing together a 20-match win streak.
The Stars are led by a pair of strong attackers in junior outside hitter Lacy Beeler and senior right side hitter Marijana Bjelobrk. Beeler has recorded a team-high 247 kills at a 3.47 per set rate, which ranks fourth in the Sooner Athletic Conference along with a conference-best 39 service aces. Bjelobrk has been effective on the right side of the net with 239 kills on a 3.23 kills per set rate that also ranks in the SAC top 10 at seventh.
Sophomore setter Sophia Salak has been the catalyst of the OCU attack in the 2019 campaign with 813 assists at a league-best 11 assists per set rate.
Defensively, Bjelobrk leads an assertive OCU blocking unit with three players with more than 40 blocks, entering the match with 49 on the season. When the ball does find the back line, sophomore libero Isabel Harwell has been able to clean things up with a team-best 377 digs, averaging 5.09 digs per set.
HISTORY WITH THE STARS
Mid-America Christian will be looking to put history behind them on Thursday night as Oklahoma City has won 29 of the previous 30 meetings, including the last 25. The last time the Evangels defeated the Stars came on Oct. 9, 2007, sweeping OCU in straight sets (30-27, 30-28, 30-25).
In their previous meeting back on Sept. 14, the Evangels challenged the Stars in the third set, but couldn't quite steal one in Abe Lemons Arena as MACU lost in straight sets (25-10, 25-17, 25-21).
BREAKING INTO THE MATCH RECORD BOOKS
With Focker's 21 kills against the Pioneers, it was just the 15th time in program history an Evangel recorded 20 or more kills in a single match as the mark tied Laurel Church's 12th best mark set in 2016. Focker has broken into MACU's single match record book four times this season. In her first match as an Evangel, Focker tied the program kills record with 27 against Huston-Tillotson, locking her up with MACU legend Christiane Smith who set the bar on Sept. 23, 2018 against Southern Nazarene. Focker's 22 kill match earlier in the season against Oklahoma Panhandle State put her in a three-way tie for ninth in the book along with Jessica Chestnut and Emily Moore.
With five service aces against Science & Arts back on Sept. 27, Focker also tied the 10th best single match mark in the MACU record books along with her teammates Maegan Plunk, Ryann Hale and Alexa Bass. Last week against Oklahoma Panhandle State, Hale jumped into the single match record book once again for service aces as her six dimes was the seventh-most in a Mid-America Christian match.
Including a place in the service ace record book, Plunk's 36 digs against Huston-Tillotson tied Camera Broadnax for the third-most in a single match in MACU history.
