WAXAHACHIE, Texas – A short-handed Mid-America Christian volleyball team battled Southwestern Assemblies of God hard, but ultimately fell short in straight sets, 25-22, 25-21, 25-19 on Friday night.
Hannah Focker led Mid-America Christian (8-6, 6-3 Sooner Athletic Conference) with 11 kills while Elena Hadzhieva chipped in nine, but the Evangels struggled against an aggressive blocking game from SAGU (12-6, 6-3 SAC), who recorded seven blocks in the match and forced MACU into committing 20 attack errors.
MACU started off hot in the first set as three Hadzhieva kills helped set up an early 8-3 advantage for the Evangels. However, the Lady Lions rallied right back following a service error, rattling off 10 unanswered to claim a 13-8 lead.
The Evangels chipped away at the deficit to bring the score to 15-12 before MACU surged in-front, tallying four straight thanks to a pair of strong Focker kills with Faith Foutch and Alexa Bass chipping in kills as well. However, three in a row for SAGU gave the advantage back to the Lady Lions and they never lost before going on to win the first set 25-22.
Southwestern held all of the momentum early in the second set as the Lady Lions scored points on the first six rallies, prompting MACU head coach Kevin Fitzgibbon to call a timeout to regroup. Mid-America Christian answered back with six unanswered of its own, taking advantage of some Lady Lions attack errors as well as Skylar Brower slamming down a pair of kills.
The game of runs swung back in the favor of SAGU as they retaliated with five unanswered to retake the lead at 11-6. The Lady Lions grew their advantage to as much as eight in the set at 18-10 before the Evangels came storming back.
A kill by Hadzhieva ignited an Evangels 9-3 run that was fueled by three Focker kills, trimming the deficit to 21-19. Despite a strong MACU comeback, the Evangels could not break the two-point deficit barrier as the Lady Lions scored four of the last six points to take set two, 25-21.
The third and final set was tightly contested early as neither team could get a lead larger than two before a Focker kill locked the set up at eight apiece. Three straight by SAGU gave the Lady Lions some breathing room, but MACU kept within striking distance thanks to kills by Focker and Hadzhieva to set the score at 13-12.
However, Southwestern would not allow the Evangels to climb any closer as another 4-0 run by the Lady Lions thwarted the MACU comeback. The deficit grew to as much as seven at 21-14 before MACU made one final push.
The Evangels tallied four of the next five points with Bass recording a pair of kills in the run to bring the score to 22-18, but that was the closest the Evangels could come as the Lady Lions scored three of the final four points to end the set and the match at 25-19.
Bass came just short of recording her second triple-double of the season, tallying a team-high 20 assists and 13 digs to go with eight kills while Plunk notched 17 digs in the Evangels backline.
Mid-America Christian will seek a road split in Texas tomorrow afternoon as the Evangels will now head to Fort Worth to challenge Texas Wesleyan in a 1 p.m. match.
