POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – Facing Baptist Bible for the second time in two weeks to start NCCAA National Championship pool play, the MACU volleyball team put together a downright dominant performance in a three-set sweep as MACU came away with the 25-14, 25-13, 25-11 victory inside Keeter Gymnasium on Wednesday afternoon.
SCORE
- Mid-America Christian X, Baptist Bible X (25-14, 25-13, 25-11)
- Mid-America Christian (23-11)
- Baptist Bible (10-19)
TOP PERFORMERS
MATCH SUMMARY
- Set One
- Mid-America Christian opened the match on a hot start, scoring five of the first six points featuring kills by Sarah Jones, Miriam Nardi and Annabeth Fehrle to go along with a Marlee Hunter service ace.
- Baptist Bible scored the next two to cut the MACU lead in-half, but the Evangels extended their advantage out to eight heading into the midway point as MACU tallied seven of the next eight with back-to-back Fehrle terminations making it a 12-4 game.
- The Patriots slowly cut the MACU edge down to five at 17-12, but MACU finished the set strong, closing it out with an 8-2 run with Lena Stockhammer powering a kill through the BBC block to wrap-up the 25-14 win.
- Set Two
- The set started off close as MACU held a 4-2 lead through the first six rallies, but a Stockhammer slam from the left side toward the middle ignited a powerful 11-4 streak that was capped off on Stockhammer's tapper over the BBC block to make it a 15-6 contest.
- The Patriots rattled off three unanswered to close the gap to six, but MACU reasserted itself five rallies later as another Stockhammer termination jumpstarted a 6-0 run finished off on a Sawyer Franz kill tooled off the Patriots block to set the score to 23-11.
- BBC finally stopped the run by scoring the next two points, but the Evangels wrapped it up on back-to-back kills from Franz and Stockhammer to seal the 25-13 final.
- Set Three
- The Evangels imposed their will on Baptist Bible to start set three, scoring the first six points with Franz pushing a kill down on an overpass off the serve.
- The Patriots notched two of the next three scores to finally get on the board, but MACU added to its already commanding advantage as five of the next six points went the Evangels way to set the score 12-3 at the midway point.
- Early in the second half, the Evangels continued to break away as a 7-1 surge finished off on consecutive Sarah Jones kills stretched the advantage out to 20-7.
- Baptist Bible tried to fight back after scoring three in a row, but the Evangels put the match away by scoring five of the final six, as Miriam Nardi's match-point kill shot through the BBC block wrapped up the 25-11 final.
MATCH NOTES
- Mid-America Christian put together one of its best offensive matches in program history in the win, as MACU's 49 kills tied the fifth-most in a three-set match in the NAIA Era (2007-present) while hitting for the second-highest attack percentage of the season at .429, also marking the fourth-highest hitting clip in a single match in the NAIA Era. Defensively, the Evangels held Baptist Bible to just 17 kills on an .062 hitting clip.
- The Evangels offensive attack showed sensational offensive balance with five players recording eight or more kills. Freshman outside hitter Sawyer Franz led all MACU attackers with 12 kills on a .474 attack percentage.
- Junior middle blocker Annabeth Fehrle also finished in double-digit kills with 10 on a career-high .692 attack percentage.
- Sarah Jones also found herself in the MACU record book as her nine kills on a .750 attack percentage tied the fifth-best individual attack percentage mark in the NAIA Era single match record book.
- Lena Stockhammer smashed nine kills on a .300 hitting clip while Miriam Nardi tallied eight terminations on a .353 attack rate.
- Ludmilla Souza led the MACU passing efforts with 23 assists while Marlee Hunter led the Evangels' back row defense with 13 digs to go with a pair of aces.
- The Evangels notched their second win over Baptist Bible in postseason play after the Evangels picked up a 3-1 win over the Patriots in the NCCAA Central Region Semifinal on Nov. 15.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will continue pool play tomorrow as the Evangels will take on No. 7 seed Regent (Va.) at 11:15 a.m. before wrapping up pool play against No. 2 seed Grace (Ind.) at 3:45 p.m.
