POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – The MACU volleyball team locked up its spot in the NCCAA Semifinals with a three- set sweep over Regent (Va.) on the last day of pool play the NCCAA National Championships inside Keeter Gymnasium on Thursday before falling to Grace (Ind.) to finish 2-1 in its pool.
As a result, Mid-America Christian will face a familiar foe in the semifinal at 3 p.m. on Friday as the Evangels will take on Wayland Baptist, who was the winner of its pool.
Mid-America Christian vs. Regent
SCORE
- Mid-America Christian 3, Regent 0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-23)
- Mid-America Christian (24-11)
- Regent (14-12)
TOP PERFORMERS
MATCH SUMMARY
- Set One
- The opening set was a back and forth battle through the first 15 rallies with neither team grabbing larger than a two-point lead before Regent strung together a 4-1 run to grab an 11-9 lead at the midway point.
- The Royals maintained their lead over the next few rallies before Sawyer Franz's kill up the middle ignited a four-unanswered run capped off on Annabeth Fehrle's powerful slam toward the back row gave MACU the 15-13 advantage.
- Regent closed it to one on a pair of occasions, the last coming on an Ella Simone service ace to make it 17-16, but the Evangels closed out the set strong by scoring eight of the final 10 points to secure the 25-18 win.
- Set Two
- Unlike the first set that started off close, Mid-America Christian got off to a dominant start, scoring 10 of the first 11 points as Franz's kill (description) rounded out the run.
- Regent battled back toward the midway point as the Royals went on a 7-1 run to close the gap to 12-8 on Makayla Daniels ace.
- After trading the next two, MACU mounted a strong run as a Stockhammer kill put through the RU block jumpstarted an 8-2 Evangels run finished off on Franz's deep cross-court palm strike toward the back-right corner set the score to 21-11.
- The Royals scored three-straight to close the gap to seven, but MACU closed out by scoring four of the final five as Franz powered the set-point kill down the left sideline to secure the 25-15 victory.
- Set Three
- Mid-America Christian was out of sync to start the third set as the Royals rattled off seven of the first eight points to secure the early 7-1 lead.
- Following four consecutive side-out points, MACU found its stride defensively as the Evangels forced four Regent attack errors during a 5-0 run as Fehrle's solo block closed it to a 9-8 game.
- The two squads traded three-point runs while an Erin Saunders kill and Sarah Jones attack error briefly put the Royals back in-front before MACU tallied three in a row back-to-back Stockhammer kills and a Jordan Banister attack error to draw it even at 14-all.
- While the Royals scored three of the next four to briefly take back the lead, Franz blasted a kill-shot in the middle of the RU defense to ignite a 7-1 Evangels surge to give MACU the 22-18 advantage.
- With the two teams trading rallies, Regent made things interesting late by taking four of the next five to bring it to 24-23 with the potential for the set to go into extra points. However, the Evangels didn't need to go to extra points to finish as Saunders hit a strike that went long for an attack error to wrap-up the 25-23 win.
MATCH NOTES
- Mid-America Christian executed well in the attack, scoring 47 kills on a .315 attack percentage while Regent finished with 30 kills on a .104 hitting clip.
- After committing nine service errors in yesterday's win over Baptist Bible, the Evangels were able to clean things up from the service line, tallying six aces and committed just three errors.
- MACU's outside tandem of Lena Stockhammer and Sawyer Franz dominated the match as Stockhammer smashed a match-high 17 kills on a .455 hitting percentage while Franz finished with 15 terminations on a stellar .500 attack clip.
- Ludmilla Souza led MACU's distribution efforts with 18 assists and narrowly missed a double-double with nine digs to go with a pair of service aces. Casady McKinney also turned in double-digit dimes with 14 to go with six shovels.
- Marlee Hunter led MACU's back row defense with 13 digs to go with seven assists in the passing game.
- By getting the win, Mid-America Christian locked up a spot in the NCCAA Semifinals on Friday while also getting the program's initial win in the first ever meeting between the Evangels and Royals.
Mid-America Christian vs. Grace
SCORE
- Grace 3, Mid-America Christian 0 (25-20, 25-18, 26-24)
- Mid-America Christian (24-12)
- Grace (22-11)
TOP PERFORMERS
MATCH SUMMARY
- Set One
- Grace managed to grab the early 4-2 lead before Mid-America Christian surged out in-front by scoring five of the next six grab the 7-5 lead off the attack error by Katie Swanson.
- The Lancers seized control heading into the halfway point, stringing together an 8-3 run capped off on assisted block by Livia Tate and Swanson on Lena Stockhammer's attack attempt to make it 13-10.
- Mid-America Christian briefly fought back to take the lead off a Sarah Jones kill and back-to-back Sawyer Franz terminations before a Jadyn Ross attack error made it 14-13. However, that would be the last lead MACU would hold in the set as Grace countered with a 7-1 run to cap it on a Liz Schmidt service ace to set the score to 20-15.
- The Evangels were unable to close the gap to less than three the rest of the way as the Lancers held on for a 25-20 win.
- Set Two
- The second set was a game of runs for both squads through the first half as a 5-1 Lancers streak was countered by a 10-5 Evangels surge as Franz finished a kill down the left sideline to make it a 13-12 MACU edge midway through.
- A Ross side-out kill on the ensuing rally stemmed the tide as the Lancers traded two-for-one over the next 12 rallies to hold a 20-17 lead late in the set.
- However, GC tallied five of the final six scores as Sahara Bee kill from the right side wrapped up the 25-18 final.
- Set Three
- Mid-America Christian got off to a much stronger start in the third set, jumping out to an 11-6 advantage halfway through off of a Ross service error and a Swanson attack error.
- An Anna Ballengee side-out kill once again pushed the advantage back in Grace's favor as the Lancers scored six of the next seven to tie it up at 12-all on another block by Bee and Ashton Leffring.
- After back-to-back side-out points, MACU jumped back out in-front by three on a Franz kill, a Leffring attack error and a Marlee Hunter service ace to set the score to 16-13.
- Once again, the Lancers slowly worked their way back into the lead off an 8-4 run with Swanson's termination making it a 21-20 contest.
- It appeared MACU was going to be able to come away with the set win after stringing together scores on three of the next four rallies as Franz put down her 18th kill of the match to bring it to set-point at 24-22.
- Unfortunately, the Evangels were unable to hang onto their lead as Grace scored the final four points to sneak away with the 26-24 win in three.
MATCH NOTES
- Even though MACU fell in straight sets, Mid-America Christian was able to finish with more kills than Grace by a 40-37 margin, but the Evangels struggled against the Lancers block as GC notched nine blocks on MACU's 23 attack errors while committing just 13 of its own to out-hit the Evangels .248 to .150.
- Freshman outside hitter Sawyer Franz finished with 18 kills on a blistering .519 attack percentage to lead the Evangels offensive efforts. However, the rest of MACU's attack was only able to come up with 22 kills on a .034 hitting clip.
- Ludmilla Souza led the passing efforts with 18 assists to go with five digs and a pair of setter dump kills while Marlee Hunter led the back row defensive efforts with 11 digs.
- Mid-America Christian was unable to come up with its first win over Grace as MACU fell to 0-2 all-time against the Lancers with its last loss to GC also coming in NCCAA National Championship pool play on Nov. 19, 2020 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
