GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Mid-America Christian volleyball team will be punching its ticket to a second straight National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) National Championship as the Evangels were selected as the Central Region representative on Wednesday.
Posting a 9-3 record with one match remaining in the 2020 portion of the regular season, the Evangels were selected to compete as the No. 3 seed and will play in Pool B at the national championship event being played at the Ericksen Center on the campus of the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minnesota from Nov. 19-21.
Mid-America Christian will open the tourney's pool play against No. 7 seed Campbellsville (Ky.) at noon on Thursday, Nov. 19 and follow it up immediately following with a 2 p.m. matchup against No. 6 seed Grace (Ind.). The Evangels will close out pool play against No. 2 seed Bethel (Ind.) on Friday, Nov. 20 at 2 p.m.
If the Evangels finish as one of the top two teams in their respective pool, they will compete in the semifinal round on Saturday, Nov. 21 with the championship following at 4:30 p.m. that same day.
After a 14-year hiatus from competing at the NCCAA National Championships from 2005 to 2018, the Evangels will look to improve upon their performance at last year's national meet after going 1-2 at nationals and finishing the season with a 15-14 overall record.
In the attack, the Evangels will be led by the top attacker in the NCCAA in senior outside hitter Hanna Foecker, who ranks first in the nation with 198 kills, averaging 4.65 kills per set on a .250 attack percentage.
On the defense, senior libero Maegan Plunk will look to command the Evangels backline as she ranks second in the NCCAA in digs per set (6.05) with 260 total digs thus far on the season.
Freshman middle blocker Allison Porter will also look to make an impact in her first NCCAA National Championships. Porter currently ranks eighth in the NCCAA in blocks per set average (0.83) as well as 10th in hitting percentage (.258).
The Evangels will be looking to do some damage from the service line at nationals with two players ranked in the top 10. Redshirt junior setter Ryann Hale ranks fourth at the NCCAA Division I level with a 0.55 service ace per set average on her 22 total aces this season while Kaylie Walker holds the No. 9 ranking with a 0.48 apg clip on her 20 aces.
Mid-America Christian will wrap up the regular season with a home match on Friday, Nov. 13 against Southwestern Assemblies of God before the team heads to nationals next week.
