CHICKASHA, Okla. – The Mid-America Christian volleyball team completed the road portion of its 2019 regular season with strong defense at the University of Science & Arts, limiting the Drovers to .036 attack percentage in a three-set sweep (25-14, 25-13, 25-20) on Tuesday night.
Mid-America Christian (14-8, 12-5 Sooner Athletic Conference) played well in its four-match road stand, winning all four matches. The Evangels also won 12 consecutive sets during the trip after conceding the first two to Southwestern Christian on Oct. 19.
Hannah Focker led the Evangels attack with 12 kills on a .348 attack percentage while senior middle blocker Dianne Walter turned in her finest offensive performance of the season with 10 kills at a .438 clip.
Meanwhile on the defensive end, junior libero Maegan Plunk tallied 17 digs in the backline, eight of which came in the opening set while freshman utility Faith Foutch recorded a career-best four blocks at the net.
The Evangels got off to a slow start in the opening set as Science & Arts (1-22, 1-15 SAC) held the early 5-4 lead. However, Elena Hadzhieva ignited the MACU attack by slamming a kill down the left sideline, starting a 10-1 run capped off on a Maddie Callicoat kill to give the Evangels a 14-6 lead.
Mid-America Christian maintained a seven-point edge over the next four rallies before the Evangels rattled off four unanswered on kills by Callicoat, Focker and Dianne Walter along with a block by Callicoat and Focker to extend the advantage to 20-9.
The two teams traded the next four points before Hadzhieva put a set point kill down to end the first set with a 25-14 win.
Set number two was tightly contested early with MACU holding a 5-4 edge after the first nine rallies, but the Evangels pulled away following a Foutch solo block that started an 8-1 run to extend the lead to eight at 13-5.
After the Drovers closed the gap to six at 14-8, the Evangels tallied seven of the next eight behind a pair of Walter kills and service ace, a Focker kill and an assisted block by Foutch and Focker to stretch the MACU edge back to 21-9.
Science & Arts could not chip away at the insurmountable lead as Mid-America Christian went on to win set two by a score of 25-13.
The third and final set was tightly contested in the early going when USAO racked up the first three points, but the Evangels fought back with three unanswered on consecutive kills by Walter, Foutch and Focker.
Neither team could gain more than a two-point edge until midway through, as MACU racked up three straight points on a USAO attack error followed by back-to-back kills by Alexa Bass to make it a 17-13 Evangels lead. The Drovers answered back with three unanswered of their own to trim the edge back down to one, but the Evangels pushed it back out to four moments later with a three-point run thanks to a Walker kill and a Rebecca Lindley service ace to set the score at 21-17.
USAO couldn't climb any closer than three the rest of the way as a Focker kill set up match point and Bass finished it with a kill on the following rally to end the match with a 25-20 set three victory.
Bass wrapped up the match with 29 assists and with the two service aces, set a couple of MACU milestones. With her 33rd and 34th aces of the season, Bass currently has the 10th most service aces in a single season in the NAIA era at MACU and is just one behind Shelbi Johnson for ninth on the all-time list. Bass also has 86 career service aces, tying her with Jordan Batley for the fourth-most career aces at Mid-America Christian.
The Evangels will close out the regular season with three consecutive home matches, beginning with a crucial conference battle with John Brown at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.
