OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian volleyball team got a much-needed bounce-back win in the friendly confines of the Gaulke Activity Center on Friday night as the Evangels snapped a three-match losing streak with a sweep over Langston.
SCORE
- Mid-America Christian 3, Langston 0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-21)
- Mid-America Christian (11-9, 5-4 SAC)
- Langston (8-10, 1-8 SAC)
TOP PERFORMERS
MATCH SUMMARY
- Set One
- Langston was able to jump out to an early 9-6 advantage, but an Annabeth Fehrle kill started a string of three straight as the Evangels battled back to tie it at nine and then again at 11-all.
- The Lady Lions were able to swing the momentum back in their favor in a big way midway through the set, utilizing an 8-2 run to make it a 19-13 Langston lead.
- Behind the serve of Casady McKinney and Faith Foutch, the Evangels battled back with a powerful 11-1 surge to bring it to game-point at 24-20. During the streak, Sarah Jones tallied a pair of kills, Fehrle and Lena Stockhammer each added one and Foutch tabbed an ace.
- LU did battle back with a pair of unanswered points before Fehrle powered a kill through the block to seal the 25-22 set one win.
- MACU tabbed 13 kills on a .171 attack percentage in the set to hold a slight edge over the Lions who notched 11 terminations on a .162 clip.
- Fehle led the MACU charge with five kills on a .444 attack rate in the opening set.
- Set Two
- After getting off to a rocky start in set one, the Evangels brought an aggressive attack to start set two. With MACU trailing 5-4, Jones poked a kill through the LU defense to ignite a string of seven straight. Fehrle smashed four kills during the streak, Stockhammer chipped in a kill as well as assisted Jones on a block to swell the lead to 11-5.
- At the midway point, the Evangels added to it with four unanswered behind Fehrle and Miriam Nardi kills as well as an assisted block by Nardi and Vanessa Moreira to stretch it to a 16-7 edge. Two rallies later, MACU started another strong 5-1 streak as Nardi's termination gave the Evangels their largest lead of the match at 21-10.
- The Lions scored on five straight rallies to close the gap, but MACU once again put together a stellar run as the Evangels scored four of the final five to secure the 25-16 win.
- Mid-America Christian was nearly unstoppable in the attack, notching 17 kills on a .387 attack percentage while the Lions could only muster nine kills at a .167 hitting clip.
- Ferle once again led the MACU attack with five kills on a .667 hitting percentage while Nardi and Cloie Mitchell each chimed in with four apiece.
- Set Three
- Langston scored four of the first five points to open the final set, but Mid-America Christian quickly swung the momentum into its favor with a 9-2 run of its own to claim a 10-6 lead. In that streak, Fehrle, Mitchell and Stockhammer each notched a kill, Foutch and Casady McKinney came away with aces and Jones added a solo block to the score.
- The Lions didn't go down without a fight as LU battled back to tie it on six different occasions as Dasia Brown's ace on the 42nd rally brought the set to a head at 21-all.
- Mid-America Christian was able to take advantage of three Lions errors before Sydney Martin wrapped up the match with a service ace to secure the sweep at 25-21.
- Even though MACU was held to only nine kills on a .097 hitting clip opposed to 11 kills at a .128 rate for Langston, the Evangels were able to make up ground from the service line with four aces in the set while committing only one miscue from the line.
MATCH NOTES
- Overall, Mid-America Christian was slightly more efficient in its attack with 39 kills on a .216 attack percentage while Langston tallied 31 kills at a .151 rate.
- The Evangels put together one of their most efficient matches of the season from the service line as MACU tallied seven aces and committed only one error while the Lions could only score five aces opposed to seven errors.
- Annabeth Fehrle put together one of her best matches of the season from the attack, scoring a match-high 13 kills on a .455 hitting percentage while Cloie Mitchell also put up a solid effort in the attack with nine terminations at a .261 rate.
- Casady McKinney and Lena Stockhammer led the passing efforts with 16 assists apiece while McKinney scored four of MACU's seven service aces.
- Marlee Hunter led the defensive efforts with 14 digs in the back row while Sarah Jones finished with three total blocks at the net.
- The victory for MACU marked the program's 10th straight win over Langston since the 2016 season. It was also the sixth consecutive match the Evangels were able take from the Lions in straight sets.
MATCH NOTES
- Mid-America Christian will be looking to close out the first half of Sooner Athletic Conference play in-style on Saturday as the Evangels will host Central Christian at 1 p.m. for a very special event inside the Gaulke Activity Center.
- MACU will honor the 20-year anniversary of the 2001 NCCAA Division II National Championship team prior to the start of the match.
