OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian volleyball team put up a strong defensive performance in its return home to the Gaulke Activity Center as the Evangels held Science & Arts to a -.010 hitting percentage to come away with a three-set sweep on Thursday night.
SCORE
- Mid-America Christian 3, Science & Arts 0 (25-13, 25-19, 25-19)
- Mid-America Christian (16-12, 10-7 SAC)
- Science & Arts (8-14, 4-13 SAC)
TOP PERFORMERS
MATCH SUMMARY
- Set One
- Science & Arts managed to keep it close through the first seven rallies, but a well-placed setter dump kill for Casady McKinney ignited a 7-2 Evangels surge as Lauryn Walters wrapped up the run with a kill to set the score to 9-4, forcing the Drovers to call a timeout.
- USAO managed to score two of the next three, but MACU rattled off four in a row featuring a Miriam Nardi kill and back-to-back McKinney service aces to make it a 14-6 game as the Drovers exhausted their final timeout.
- The Drovers brought it back to within striking distance after scoring five of the first eight points out of the timeout, but the Evangels put together a strong counter to close out the set as MACU won eight of the next 10 rallies to seal a 25-13 victory on a Faith Foutch service ace.
- Mid-America Christian dominated both offensively and defensively in the set, recording 11 kills on a .269 attack percentage while holding the Drovers to only six kills at a -.097 hitting clip.
- MACU was also great from the service line, scoring four aces with McKinney's pair to go with one apiece from Foutch and Stockhammer.
- Nardi and Vanessa Moreira led the Evangels attack with three kills apiece as the duo combined for a .500 hitting percentage.
- Set Two
- After Mid-America Christian opened the set with three straight points off Science & Arts attack errors, the Drovers took advantage of three straight MACU hitting miscues during a four-point run to take a 4-3 lead.
- The lead changed hands three times over the next three rallies, but the Evangels gained the lead for good following a Drovers attack error as MACU put together a 6-1 surge capped off on a Sydney Martin service ace to make it a 16-11 game.
- USAO scored on back-to-back rallies to bring it back to three, but the Evangels streaked away by blocking three consecutive Drovers attacks during a 9-2 run as back-to-back Nardi blasts brought it to game-point at 24-15.
- The Drovers didn't give up as they scored four in a row to close the gap, but Nardi powered a kill through the USAO block to finally seal the 25-19 victory.
- Neither team was able to get into much of a rhythm offensively as USAO recorded 12 kills and 10 attack errors for an .051 attack rate while the Evangels only mustered eight kills and six miscues for a .065 hitting clip.
- MACU was able to make up the points from the block and in-service as the Evangels tallied five blocks and two aces while USAO turned in just two blocks with no aces.
- Nardi was the lone bright spot for the Mid-America Christian attack, tallying five kills on a .714 attack percentage in the set.
- Set Three
- Science & Arts kept things close in the early going, even taking a 7-6 lead off of back-to-back kills by Alyssa Kooijman and Samantha Perez, but the Evangels swung the match in their favor with five unanswered as Nardi followed a Ryley Bowden ace with a kill to take an 11-7 lead midway through the set.
- The Drovers got the side-out following a timeout, but Mid-America Christian continued to pull away by scoring nine of the next 12 points as a Sarah Jones kill set the score to 20-11.
- USAO battled back by taking six of the following eight rallies, closing it to a five-point game at 22-17 off an Annabeth Fehrle attack error.
- Mid-America Christian was able to get side-outs on three of the final five points to secure the 25-19 victory.
- MACU bounced back offensively in the set, putting down 13 kills on a .300 percentage while the Drovers were held to a zero percentage with six kills and six errors.
- The Evangels struggled from the service line in the final set, giving the Drovers seven points off service errors.
- Stockhammer led the MACU attack with four kills at a .250 rate while senior Cloie Mitchell pitched in three kills on a .600 attack percentage.
MATCH NOTES
- Offensively, Mid-America Christian finished the match with 32 kills on a .207 attack percentage while putting together one of its best defensive matches of the season after holding Science & Arts to only 24 kills at a -.010 clip. It was the third time MACU held an opponent to hitting in the negatives after limiting Central Christian to -.056 on Oct. 1 and York to -.022 on Aug. 27.
- The MACU defense also turned in eight blocks for the match, marking the second-most for the Evangels in a three-set match this season. Sarah Jones played the biggest role in the MACU blocking efforts as she tied a season-high five total rejections.
- Miriam Nardi came up big in the Evangels attack with a match-high 11 kills on a .450 attack rate while Vanessa Moreira came up big on senior night both offensively and defensively with five kills on a .400 clip to go with three assisted blocks.
- The digs were spread out amongst MACU's back row defense. Of the Evangels' 40 digs, no one player cracked double-digit digs as Sydney Martin led the way with nine.
- With the win, Mid-America Christian improved to 16-12 overall and 10-7 in Sooner Athletic Conference play, moving just a half-game back of Oklahoma City for the No. 4 spot in the standings. The Drovers defeat dropped USAO to 8-14 overall and 4-13 in SAC play.
- MACU also improved 16-0 all-time against Science & Arts since the Drovers started their volleyball program in 2016. Impressively, the Evangels have swept USAO 13 times in those 16 meetings.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will play its final regular season home match on Saturday as the Evangels will take on John Brown (Ark.) in a critical SAC showdown. Opening serve is slated for 1 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center.
