POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – The Mid-America Christian volleyball team won its first NCCAA National Championship Tournament match since 2003 and its first ever match at the Division I level with a three-set sweep (25-15, 25-11, 25-23) over No. 8 seed Piedmont International on Friday afternoon at the College of the Ozarks.
With the win, it was the Evangels first victory at the NCCAA National Championships since MACU defeated Johnson Bible College at the NCCAA Division II National Championships on Nov. 7, 2003.
Junior outside hitter Hannah Focker led the Evangels by recording seven service aces, the fourth-most in a single match in MACU history to go with 10 kills and seven digs. In her final match with the Evangels, senior outside hitter Elena Hadzhieva recorded a game-high 13 kills on a .480 attack percentage.
In the opening set, Piedmont International (16-15) jumped out to an early 4-3 lead, but Mid-America Christian (15-14) took control with a 4-0 run started by an Alexa Bass kill and followed with a pair of Focker service aces and a Hadzhieva kill to make it a 7-4 game.
The Bruins were able to keep it to within two points over the next seven rallies, but back-to-back kills by Bass and Skylar Brower jumpstarted a 9-2 streak to push the Evangels advantage to 20-11. Focker capped off the run with kills on consecutive possessions.
The Bruins responded with back-to-back points to close the gap to seven, but MACU would allow PIU no closer as the Evangels pulled away for the 25-15 set one win.
The Evangels faced another early challenge from Piedmont early in the second set as the Bruins jumped out to an early 4-3 edge, but MACU swung back by recording kills on the next five rallies with Bass recording a pair to go with Focker, Hadzhieva and Faith Foutch each adding to the run.
PIU fought back to trim its deficit to two at 10-8, but MACU once again strung together a big run with a Brower kill igniting a string of six unanswered to extend the Evangels edge to 16-8. Mid-America Christian continued to pull away over the course of the set to come away with the 25-11 set two victory.
The Evangels faced their toughest challenge in the final set despite jumping out to a 13-7 advantage midway through. Piedmont rattled off three in a row to make it a three-point deficit before MACU answered back with three consecutive points on kills by Focker and Hadzhieva to go with a PIU attack error to extend the lead back to 16-10.
MACU maintained a six-point edge over the next four rallies until the Bruins caught fire by going on an 8-1 run with the lone Evangels point coming off a service error to take a late 21-19 advantage.
Hadzhieva, the senior outside hitter from Razlog, Bulgaria, willed her team on late in the set by recording kills on four of the next six rallies to tie the set up at 23-all. A Focker kill set up match point and senior middle blocker Dianne Walter recorded the match-winning kill on her final rally in an Evangels uniform for the 25-23 set three victory.
In her final match, Bass came just two kills shy of a triple-double, tallying 24 assists and 16 digs to go with eight kills. Junior libero Maegan Plunk was big on the defensive backline, recording 27 digs for the second-most digs in a three-set match in MACU history.
In her first season with the Evangels, Focker set several major marks in the record books, notching the third-most kills (371), the third-most points (432.5) and the third-most service aces (48) in a single season.
With 713 assists, Bass surpassed her own sixth-best mark in the MACU record book for single season assists and tied the seventh-most service aces (39). Bass finishes her Evangels career with the third-most assists (1409) and tied Calle Solie for the third-most career service aces (91) in MACU history.
In the back row, Plunk closed out her 2019 season with the third-most digs in a single season, notching 508 at 5.16 digs per set.
Mid-America Christian wraps up a highly successful 2019 season with a 15-14 record, its highest finish ever in the Sooner Athletic Conference and its first appearance ever at the NCCAA Division I National Championships.
