OKLAHOMA CITY – Over the course of the 2019 season, the Mid-America Christian volleyball team put together one of the most successful seasons in program history, finishing the campaign with a 15-14 overall record.
Under first year head coach Kevin Fitzgibbon, it was the Evangels' first winning season since the 2012 campaign when MACU went 18-16, but fell just short of making the NCCAA National Championships. During the 2019 season, the Evangels not only advanced to its first NCCAA National Championship since 2004, but also won a match at the national meet for the first time since 2003 with a three-set sweep over Piedmont International.
"I'm pretty happy with how the season ended considering what this team had to overcome," said Fitzgibbon. "When I got here in late June, we only had four players committed to play and you need six to even field a team. Not only were we able to get the roster up to 15 players, but the fact that we were even able to get to nationals just went to show the resilience these girls had all season."
The Evangels not only posted the best overall record since 2012, but Mid-America Christian finished with its best ever record and placement in Sooner Athletic Conference play since joining the league in 2007. MACU placed fifth in the conference standings with a 12-8 overall mark. The Evangels were a scrappy team in league play as MACU was the only team in the league to take No. 16 Oklahoma City, a squad that went undefeated in conference play, to five sets in a 3-2 loss at the Gaulke Activity Center on Oct. 17.
"Give credit where credit is due, these girls bought in from the very beginning," Fitzgibbon added. "For some of these seniors, I was their fourth head coach in their career. I asked for their trust and credit to them, they were willing to give it."
One of the players that made the biggest impact to the team was an incoming junior outside hitter in Hannah Focker. In her first season with the Evangels, Focker set several NAIA era program season marks, including setting the record for kills per set (3.95) and recorded the third-most kills (371) and the third-most service aces (48).
In her first match with the Evangels, the Sudlohn, Germany native tied Christiane (Acosta) Smith's NAIA era single match kills record with 27 in a five-set loss to eventual Red River Athletic Conference Champion Huston-Tillotson on Aug. 24. On Oct. 19, Focker became the first Evangels player to ever record 30 kills in a single match after rallying the team from two sets down to top Southwestern Christian 3-2, getting the match-tying kills in set four before getting the match-winning 30th kill in set five.
After completing the conference campaign, Focker was awarded the Sooner Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year, the first conference superlative award for a MACU volleyball player since joining the league while also being named to the All-SAC Second Team.
On-top of league honors, the 6-1 outside hitter was garnered with AVCA-NCCAA All-American Second Team accolades, becoming the 15th All-American at MACU and the first since Smith received her second All-American accolade in 2010.
"She was a big reason why we had the success that we did," Fitzgibbon commented about Focker. "We were really fortunate to find her. She was passed up by many in the collegiate recruiting pool and when we brought her in, we knew we had someone special joining our program."
While the Evangels had a special player attacking the net, they had another special player patrolling the backline in junior libero Maegan Plunk.
The All-SAC Second Team performer closed out her second season at MACU with the third-most digs in a single season with 516 at an NAIA era record clip of 5.16 digs per set.
In MACU's five-set loss to Huston-Tillotson, the Rowlett, Texas native tallied a career-best 36 digs, the third-most in a match during the NAIA era. In the Evangels final match of the season at the NCCAA National Championships, Plunk tied a three-set career-high 27 digs, the second-most in a three-set match during the NAIA/NCCAA Division I era.
"She a little bulldog as a libero," said Fitzgibbon. "She gives 110-percent every single day and is pushing herself to get better day in and day out. We are really fortunate to have a libero of her quality and we expect even bigger things from her next season."
While the Evangels will be losing three seniors to graduation, setter Alexa Bass, middle blocker Dianne Walter and outside hitter Elena Hadzhieva have left a major impact during their tenure at MACU.
Bass leaves the program as one of the program's best setters in MACU history. In her two seasons in a MACU uniform, Bass recorded the third-most assists (1409) with the second-best assist per set ratio (6.91) in the NAIA era. The Argyle, Texas native also matched Calle Solie for the third-most career service aces with 91 on the third-best service ace per set clip (0.45).
Walter closed out her Evangels career as one of the best middles to ever play at MACU, finishing with the ninth-most career blocks during the NAIA era with 148. During her three-year MACU career, the Vancouver, Wash. product averaged 0.52 blocks per set with her best season coming during her sophomore campaign when she knocked down 52 at the net.
In her two seasons at Mid-America Christian, Hadzhieva was an aggressive attacker that finished her two seasons with the eighth-best kills per set ratio during the NAIA era at 2.25. In her senior campaign, the Razlog, Bulgaria native recorded a career-high 254 kills.
"I credit these three for a large part of success the team had this season," Fitzgibbon remarked. "They were the lifeblood and the leadership of this team. After everything the program has been through, for them to buy in the way they did was truly remarkable."
Mid-America Christian will look to carry the momentum into the 2020 season as the Evangels will continue the pursuit of their first national championship since 2001.
