OKLAHOMA CITY – The No. 3 seeded Mid-America Christian volleyball team is prepared to compete at its second consecutive National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Division I National Championship being played at the Ericksen Center on the campus on Northwestern University in St. Paul, Minnesota this week.
The Evangels will open pool play at noon on Thursday as MACU will take on seventh-seeded Campbellsville (Ky.) before challenging No. 6 seed Grace (Ind.) immediately following at 2 p.m. MACU will round out pool play against No. 2 seed Bethel (Ind.) at 2 p.m. on Friday and if the Evangels finish in one of the top two spots in their pool, will advance to the semifinal round being played at 10 a.m. and noon on Saturday with the event wrapping up with the championship match at 4:30 p.m.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Campbellsville hasn't had much an opportunity to compete during the fall portion of the season, as the Tigers lone match was a 3-1 exhibition win over Saint-Mary-Of-The-Woods on Sept. 25. In that win, junior outside hitter Sonia Flendrich led the way with 14 kills, four service aces, four blocks and 13 digs while junior setter Paige Merrick dished out a team-high 29 assists and sophomore libero Man Chin Fung turned in a team-high 15 digs.
During the 2019 season, the Tigers went 17-18 overall while going 4-12 in the Mid-South Conference. Flendrich was the team's top attacker, turning in 312 kills at a 2.4 kills per set clip on a .131 attack percentage. CU also returned its second-best attacker in redshirt sophomore outside hitter Sutton Mason, who finished the year with 254 kills, averaging two per set on a .213 attack rate.
Merrick returns as the team's starting setter after finishing the 2019 campaign with 1120 assists, dishing out 8.6 per set while Chin Fung is taking over the libero duties after the team graduated its starting libero in Jaimie Thompson. In limited action, Chin Fung recorded 125 digs, averaging 2.4 digs per set a year ago.
On top of being a strong setter, Merrick was also an efficient server for CU, leading the team with 50 aces on a .943 service percentage while junior middle blocker Stela Velinova is the team's best returning middle blocker, who finished second on last year's squad with 36 total blocks.
HISTORY WITH THE TIGERS
The two teams will be facing each other for the first time in the programs' histories.
SCOUTING THE LANCERS
Grace enters the NCCAA National Championships after posting an 8-8 overall record and finishing with an 8-7 mark in the Crossroads League conference.
The Lancers are coming off a first round loss to St. Francis (Ind.) in their conference tournament, falling 3-1 (25-19, 17-25, 25-22, 25-20) on Nov. 10.
GC is a balanced attacking team with three players recording more than 100 kills, led by senior outside hitter Paige Eakright with 121 kills at a 2.7 K/S rate and hitting for a .162 attack percentage. Freshman outside hitter Cassadi Colbert has also been a strong attacker for the Lancers, notching 105 kills at 2.4 K/S and hitting for a .137 clip.
Senior setter Gabbey Harrington has been the squad's featured setter during the 2020-21 campaign thus far, passing out 525 assists at 9.4 A/S while the backline defense has been balanced between Julia Nagy and Gina Novotny with Nagy turning in 186 digs (4.3 D/S) and Novotny recording 191 (3.5 D/S).
While the Lancers don't feature much blocking as a team, averaging just 1.3 B/S, junior middle hitter Makayla Lochmueller has been a strong presence at the net with 38 blocks on a 0.7 B/S clip.
HISTORY WITH THE LANCERS
Mid-America Christian will also be facing Grace for the first time in program history.
SCOUTING THE PILOTS
Bethel has been one of the top teams in the NCCAA heading into the National Championships, coming into the event with a 15-4 record and went 14-3 to finish third in the Crossroads League conference standings.
The Pilots were able to advance to the semifinal round of the Crossroads League Tournament before falling 3-0 (25-23, 27-25, 25-17) to Marian (Ind.).
BU features one of the most balanced attacks in the NCCAA as the team has five players with more than 100 kills and six players with at least 90 kills.
Of those attackers, a freshman middle blocker in Isabelle North leads the way with 180 kills at 2.6 K/S and a .343 attack percentage while another freshman middle blocker in Maddie Payne has turned in 170 kills at 2.4 K/S on a .295 hitting percentage.
Of the two setter rotation, junior Madyson Beaver has been the featured setter with a team-high 403 assists at 5.7 per set while junior Jackie Fernandez is one of three Pilots players with more than 200 digs, turning in a team-high 298 for a 4.5 D/S rate.
Bethel isn't just one of the top blocking teams in the NCCAA, but the Pilots are also one of the best blocking teams in the NAIA as well with a national best 223 total blocks while the squad's 3.14 B/S also ranks second in the NAIA. Payne and North have spearheaded those blocking efforts with each recording 103 and 100 total blocks.
HISTORY WITH THE PILOTS
Mid-America Christian and Bethel will be facing each other for the first time in the programs' histories.
A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES
After making its return to the NCCAA National Championships for the first time in 15 years during the 2019 event, Mid-America Christian will be looking to make it even farther in its second consecutive trip to nationals. In last year's NCCAA National Championship event, Mid-America Christian competed as the No. 5 seed and entered the event with a 14-12 record, finishing the season with just the second winning season since moving up to the Division I level in 2007. The Evangels went 1-2 during pool play, dropping a 3-1 opening round match No. 4 seed Judson and were swept by top-seeded Southwestern Assemblies of God before closing out the meet with a three-set sweep over No. 8 seed Piedmont International. While the 2020 season has been an unorthodox one for the Evangels with the season being split up between a fall and spring season, Mid-America Christian has performed well by posting a 9-4 overall record during the fall, which included winning an NAIA era record nine consecutive victories. No matter what the results are at this year's national championships, the Evangels will have more volleyball ahead as they will return to competition in February.
REPLICATING SUCCESS
Even though the Evangels didn't get the results they wanted in last year's championships, Mid-America Christian will be looking to replicate the results of its tournament finale against Piedmont International on Dec. 6, 2019. In that 3-0 (25-15, 25-11, 25-23) victory, libero Maegan Plunk was stellar on the defensive backline, recording 27 digs to tie the second-most in a three-set match during the NAIA era while Hanna Foecker put down seven service aces to move into a four-way tie for the fourth-most in a three-set match.
RECORD WATCH
Despite senior outside hitter Hanna Foecker competing in just 40 matches with the Evangels, the 6-2 outside hitter from Sudlohn, Germany is quickly climbing up the program's NAIA era record books. Turning in 586 career kills with Mid-America Christian thus far, Foecker is currently sixth on MACU's career kills list and is 17 away from catching Larissa Runyan for fifth in the record books.
Redshirt junior setter Ryann Hale will also be eyeing a move up the MACU record books. Currently with 85 career service aces, the Oklahoma City native is one ace away from tying Jordan Batley for fifth on MACU's aces list and if she can get six aces before the end of the tournament will move in a three-way tie for third with Calle Solie and Alexa Bass. Hale also has a realistic chance of moving into the program's career top five for assists as well. Currently seventh in the books with 696 career assists, Hale is 16 assists away from matching Emily Lynch for sixth and 55 from catching Emily Moore for fifth.
