OKLAHOMA CITY – Hosting its first ever NCCAA Division I Central Region Championship, the MACU volleyball team put together two incredible performances with a 3-1 win over Baptist Bible (Mo.) in the semifinal before defeating Wayland Baptist in straights in the title tilt inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Wednesday night to come away with the team's second Central Region Championship in the last three years.
 
Semifinal / Mid-America Christian vs. Baptist Bible
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, Baptist Bible 1 (25-14, 19-25, 25-13, 25-9)
  • Mid-America Christian (21-11)
  • Baptist Bible (10-18)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Sawyer Franz – 12 Kills, .241 ATK%, 3 Digs
• Miriam Nardi – 9 Kills, .421 ATK%, 2 Digs
• Ludmilla Souza – 21 Assists, 6 Digs, 3 Aces, 3 Kills, .600 ATK%
• Faith Foutch – 6 Aces

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • Mid-America Christian opened strong, scoring six of the first eight points as back-to-back kills by Miriam Nardi and Annabeth Fehrle gave the Evangels the early four-point lead.
  • Baptist Bible went on a big run toward the midway point as a 7-1 Patriots run put BBC in-front 11-9 on a Kloe Hendrickson service ace.
  • After Lauryn Walters tooled a kill off the top of the BBC block to end a long rally and give MACU the side-out point, the Evangels went on a 6-0 run that featured four Faith Foutch service aces to make it a 15-11 MACU lead.
  • The Patriots rattled off three in a row to close the gap to one, but Mid-America Christian went on an incredible 10-unanswered streak to close out the set as Nardi finished it off with a kill to wrap-up the 25-14 win.
• Set Two
  • BBC took advantage of four early miscues by MACU as the Patriots scored seven of the first eight points to open the second set.
  • The Evangels managed to close it back to three on a Sawyer Franz kill to make it 9-6, but the Patriots swung back with five straight to extend the BBC advantage to eight on another Hendrickson ace.
  • Baptist Bible thwarted MACU every time it was able to cut the advantage down to five as a 4-1 run allowed the Patriots to take their largest lead of the match at 24-14, making it set point on a Franz attack error.
  • Mid-America Christian built some momentum heading into the third by scoring on five-straight set point rallies as Fehrle's hammering kill up the middle closed it to 24-19 before the Patriots finally ended it on an Ella Sims kill.
• Set Three
  • It was a close battle through the first eight rallies as the two team were dead even before a hitting miscue by Summer Kenney began a 9-2 Evangels run as a Lena Stockhammer and Fehrle assisted block gave MACU the 13-6 advantage at the midway point.
  • The Patriots eventually closed it back to a five-point game at 18-13, but MACU once again closed the set on an enormous run, scoring the final seven as a BBC ball-handling error ended a 25-13 victory for the Evangels.
• Set Four
  • After a Chasity Middleton kill opened the scoring in the final set, the Evangels seized control with a thoroughly dominant 14-unanswered streak as Nardi's termination from the right side to the open middle made it a 14-1 contest.
  • A Souza ball-handling error on the ensuing point only briefly halted MACU's incredible streak as five more consecutive Evangels scores, including three Franz kills extended the edge to 19-2.
  • MACU took its largest lead of the match at 22-4 following a pair of kills from Franz and Fehrle before Baptist Bible managed to score four of the next five to hack it down to a 15-point advantage.
  • The Evangels scored two of the final three, wrapping it up on another Nardi set-ending kill to close out the 25-9 final.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian had one of its most efficient attack matches of the season, recording 49 kills on a .276 attack percentage while Baptist Bible finished with just 27 kills on a .061 hitting rate.
• The Evangels not only had their best match of the season from the service line, but also one of the best matches in the NAIA Era as the MACU tallied a season-high 18 aces, marking the third-most aces in a single match since the program joined the NAIA in 2007. The previous record of 20 was set twice in a win over Tabor (Kan.) on Oct. 9, 2010 before notching 20 more in a victory over Texas College on Aug. 30, 2012.
• After being held to just three kills through the first two sets, Sawyer Franz ended up leading the MACU attack with nine kills over the final two to finish with a match-high 12 kills on a .241 attack percentage.
• The Evangels got some strong scoring from its right sides and middle as Miriam Nardi tallied nine kills on a .421 rate, Annabeth Fehrle finished with eight kills on a .333 percentage and Sarah Jones notched six terminations on a .273 hitting clip.
• Ludmilla Souza led the setting efforts with 21 assists to go with six digs and three aces while Casady McKinney added 14 assists, six digs and two aces.
• Marlee Hunter was the team's digs leader in the back row with 17 shovels to go with seven assists and a pair of aces.
• In a MACU career that's amassed 125 aces, Faith Foutch tallied a career-high from the service line with six of MACU's 18 aces.
• Playing each other for the first time since 2008, Mid-America Christian improved to 8-2 against Baptist Bible since 2003 with their eighth-straight win in the all-time series.

 
Championship / Mid-America Christian vs. Wayland Baptist
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, Wayland Baptist 0 (25-7, 25-20, 25-20)
  • Mid-America Christian (22-11)
  • Wayland Baptist (15-15)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Lena Stockhammer – 13 Kills, .233 ATK%, 5 Digs
• Sawyer Franz – 10 Kills, .280 ATK%, 2 Blocks
• Casady McKinney – 19 Assists, 9 Digs
• Ludmilla Souza – 15 Assists, 6 Aces, 5 Digs
• Marlee Hunter – 17 Digs, 4 Assists
• Sarah Jones – 6 Kills, .417 ATK%, 4 Blocks

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • Mid-America Christian jumped out to a commanding lead over Wayland Baptist, scoring on 10 of the first 13 rallies as Ryley Bowden planted a service ace down the middle to make a seven-point MACU lead.
  • The Pioneers scored the next two before the Evangels charged forward with five-straight featuring a pair of Lena Stockhammer kills and a Lauryn Walters termination before Gabreya Garcia's hitting error made it a 15-5 game.
  • WBU scored the next two to get its deficit back to single-digits, but Sarah Jones' side-out kill ignited another dominant 10-unanswered run to close out the set as another Pioneers hitting miscue ended an incredible 25-7 victory for MACU.
• Set Two
  • The first 12 rallies were a tug of war between the Pioneers and the Evangels with WBU holding the 7-5 edge before Casady McKinney dished an incredible one-handed set to Annabeth Fehrle's finish to the back-left corner, firing up a string of six straight for MACU to push the Evangels in-front 11-7.
  • Mid-America Christian was unable to push its advantage out to larger than five over the next 12 rallies before back-to-back terminations by Fehrle and Walters followed by a Carlee Heidebrecht attack error stretch the MACU advantage to 20-13.
  • The two teams traded two-point runs five times over the next 10 rallies before Stockhammer closed it out by tooling a kill off the top of the WBU block and out the back for the set point kill at 25-20.
• Set Three
  • Wayland Baptist utilized a 7-2 run to grab an early 7-5 edge from MACU before the Evangels countered with a 4-1 run of its own to recapture the one-point edge at 9-8 on back-to-back Stockhammer terminations.
  • The Pioneers scored the next two on a Faith Foutch service error and Stockhammer hitting miscue to grab their last lead of the match before the Evangels swung back with a 7-1 run as a Jones and Nardi assisted block brought it to 16-11.
  • WBU made it interesting by scoring the next five to tie it up before Franz and Fade Ogunbade traded kills to set the score to 17-all.
  • A Nardi side-out kill on the ensuing rally allowed the Evangels to finish strong once again as MACU closed out on an 8-3 run as Stockhammer powered the match point kill cross court to seal the 25-20 victory.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian finished the match with 44 kills on an effective .200 attack percentage while the Evangels held Wayland Baptist to a season-low 15 kills on a season-worst .011 hitting percentage.
• MACU was able to completely contain the SAC Attacker of the Year Fade Ogunbade, as the sophomore middle recorded just five kills on a .000 hitting clip against the Evangels defense.
• The Evangels were once again sensational from the service line, serving up 12 aces to just three for the Pioneers.
• Lena Stockhammer led the MACU attack with 12 kills on a .200 attack rate while Sawyer Franz chipped in 10 kills for a .280 hitting clip.
• Casady McKinney narrowly missed a double-double with a match-high 19 assists to go with nine digs while Ludmilla Souza finished with 15 assists, a career-best six aces and five digs in the defense.
• Souza's six-ace effort allowed her to join some elite company by becoming the fifth MACU player in the NAIA Era to record more than 50 aces in a season. Her sixth ace of the match drew her even with Kaylie Walker (2020) for the third-most aces in a season (54) and needs just four more to catch her setting teammate in McKinney (2022) and Hannah Luedtke (2014) for the single-season record.
• Marlee Hunter once again led a balanced back-row defensive effort as the only Evangel with double-digit digs at 17 while also dishing out four assists.
• Sarah Jones proved to be an important piece for MACU both offensively and defensively, tallying six kills on a .417 hitting percentage to go with four assisted blocks.
• Mid-America Christian earned its fourth win over Wayland Baptist this season while the Evangels have now won nine straight matches in the series since 2021.
• The Evangels won their second ever NCCAA Division I Central Region Championship match, both coming within three years after MACU cruised to a 25-14, 25-18, 25-11 over College of the Ozarks (Mo.) in Keeter Gymnasium on Nov. 18, 2021 for the program's first regional title.
• The victory also gave the Evangels the Central Region's automatic berth to the NCCAA National Championships for the fifth-straight year. MACU will be the Central Region's automatic qualifier in the last four tournaments while earning an at-large berth in 2019.

UP NEXT

• The 2023 NCCAA National Championships will once again be hosted by College of the Ozarks inside Keeter Gymnasium in Point Lookout, Missouri from Nov. 29-Dec. 2.