OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU volleyball team had to battle from an early deficit, but found its stride in set two as the Evangels ended up running away with a dominant 3-1 win over Oklahoma City in its final regular season home match inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Thursday night.

The victory proved to be a important one for MACU as the Evangels with the win locked up one of the top four seeds in the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament starting next week, allowing Mid-America Christian to host one more SAC Quarterfinal match on Tuesday.
 
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, Oklahoma City 1 (23-25, 25-11, 25-18, 25-13)
  • Mid-America Christian (18-10, 14-5 SAC)
  • Oklahoma City (12-12, 11-8 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Sawyer Franz – 15 Kills, .222 ATK%, 3 Digs
• Lena Stockhammer – 14 Kills, .257 ATK%, 3 Digs
• Miriam Nardi – 12 Kills, .267 ATK%, 3 Blocks, 3 Digs
• Ludmilla Souza – 30 Assists, 12 Digs
• Marlee Hunter – 22 Digs, 5 Assists, 2 Aces

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • After an early back-and-forth, Oklahoma City captured the early momentum behind a 6-1 run as back-to-back Ruby Kelley service aces gave the Stars the 7-3 edge.
  • OCU maintained its lead until the midway set, but the Evangels managed to capture the lead halfway through behind four-straight, capped off on kills by Sawyer Franz and Sarah Jones to make it a 13-11 MACU advantage.
  • The two teams traded leads a few more times before Miriam Nardi powered down a kill from the right side to tie it at 16, but OCU stormed back out in-front following a Kelley kill, a Natalie Adams ace as well as a Gabrielle Fjeseth and Rylee Steward assisted block before eventually building the lead out to 22-18.
  • MACU mustered a late 4-1 run to close it to 24-23 on consecutive Emma Nickerson attack errors, but the Stars eventually finished off the 25-23 win on another Kelley termination.
• Set Two
  • Unlike the opening set, Mid-America Christian stormed out in-front immediately to start set two as a Jones and Stockhammer assisted block on the opening rally jumpstarted an impressive MACU run that was closed out on an Annabeth Fehrle kill and an OCU setting error to make it 13-3 midway through.
  • The Stars scored two of the next three, but MACU built its largest lead of the match at 19-5 off a five-unanswered rally that was generated off of three OCU attack errors and a service miscue to go with a Stockhammer slam.
  • OCU tried to fight back by scoring six of the next nine points, but Mid-America Christian finally closed it on a powerful Sawyer Franz swing down the left side to wrap-up the 25-11 win.
• Set Three
  • The Stars grabbed the early momentum by scoring six of the first eight, but a net violation on OCU during Nardi's attack ignited a 6-1 Evangels surge as Ryley Bowden's service off the shanked receive made it an 8-7 MACU edge.
  • OCU took back a 12-10 lead midway through off a three-point Stars surge, but Stockhammer's side-out cross-court shot started a 6-2 Evangels run to recapture the 16-14 advantage.
  • Oklahoma City closed it back to one twice over the next three rallies, but four unanswered MACU points spelled the end to the Stars comeback efforts as MACU scored eight of the final 10 points to run away with the 25-18 win on Stockhammer's kill deflected out the right side.
• Set Four
  • Even though Mid-America Christian conceded the first two points, the Evangels all but put the match out of reach on Stockhammer's side-out cross-court blast as MACU scored 14 of the next 15 points before Franz finished off a long rally with another left-side-to-right firing to make it a 14-3 contest at the midway point.
  • Oklahoma City entertained a potential comeback by ratting off scores on six of the next eight, closing it to a 16-9 game on a mis-hit by Stockhammer out the right side.
  • Another Stars attack error followed by back-to-back Faith Foutch service aces spelled the end to any chance for an OCU comeback as the Evangels scored nine of the final 13 points as Nardi smashed down the match-point kill from the right side to cap off another dominant 25-13 victory.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian was by far and away the better team in the offensive attack as the Evangels recorded 53 kills on a very efficient .241 attack percentage while holding Oklahoma City to only 25 terminations on a .007 hitting rate, the fewest kills the Stars recorded all season in a four-set match.
• Between their win in Abe Lemons Arena on Sept. 28 and the victory inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Thursday night, MACU held OCU to a zero-attack percentage with 50 kills and 50 errors in seven sets of action. The Evangels also dominated the season series by outscoring OCU 173-117 in those seven sets.
• The service line proved to be the determining factor in OCU's 25-23 set one win as the Stars registered five aces to four errors while MACU recorded just one ace and five service miscues, resulting in a 10-5 scoring differential from the line in the opening set. However, MACU made vast improvement from the service line and in-receive over the final three sets as the Evangels tallied seven aces to only four errors while OCU registered just two aces and five errors over the final three sets.
• Sawyer Franz led three Evangels into double-digit kills with 15 terminations on a .222 attack percentage while Lena Stockhammer finished with 14 kills on a .257 hitting clip. Miriam Nardi rounded out MACU's double-figure attackers with 12 kills on a .267 rate.
• Annabeth Fehrle also turned in the most efficient match in her two-year Evangels career, tallying seven terminations on a blistering .583 attack rate.
• Ludmilla Souza led MACU's distribution efforts with her fourth-straight double-double and her eighth of the season after dishing out 30 assists to go with 12 digs.
• Marlee Hunter led MACU's back-row defensive efforts with 22 digs while Nardi and Sarah Jones recorded three assisted blocks to lead the front-row defense.
• With the victory, Mid-America Christian has now won five of the last six meetings since the start of the 2021 season, including sweeping the season series for the second-straight year.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will wrap-up the regular season with a massive road match on Friday night as the Evangels head to Siloam Springs, Arkansas for a 7:30 p.m. first serve at John Brown inside Bill George Arena. If MACU can get a win, it will overtake the Golden Eagles for the No. 3 seed in the upcoming SAC Tournament.