POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – For the second time in three seasons, the MACU volleyball team will be playing for the NCCAA National Championship as the Evangels defeated rival No. 5 seed Wayland Baptist for the fifth time this season in the semifinal round by a score of 3-1 inside Keeter Gymnasium on Friday afternoon.
Mid-America Christian will face-off against second-seeded Grace (Ind.) in a rematch of the Pool B finale at 1 p.m. on Saturday as the Evangels will look to avenge their loss to the Lancers.
SCORE
- Mid-America Christian 3, Wayland Baptist 1 (25-21, 21-25, 25-20, 25-22)
- Mid-America Christian (25-12)
- Wayland Baptist (18-16)
TOP PERFORMERS
MATCH SUMMARY
- Set One
- Mid-America Christian opened the match on a high note, scoring five of the first six points as a kill apiece by Sarah Jones, Miriam Nardi, Sawyer Franz and Annabeth Fehrle to go along with a Fade Ogunbade attack error made it a 5-1 Evangels lead.
- The Pioneers scored three-straight to cut it to a one-point game, but a Franz termination off the WBU block ignited another 5-1 Evangels surge as an assisted block by Fehrle and Lauryn Walters made set the score to 10-5.
- It was a slow build over the next 22 rallies as Wayland Baptist eventually closed it to a one-point game at 19-18 on Lena Stockhammer's attack miscue, but after trading the next two rallies, MACU built some separation on terminations by Stockhammer and Jones to make it a 22-19 game.
- Alyssa Vasquez finally got the side-out kill to briefly end the run, but MACU scored three of the final four as Franz finished the set on a powerful side-out kill down the left sideline to wrap up the 25-21 win.
- Set Two
- After trading the first four rallies, MACU seized the early control as a Wayland service error was followed by kills from Franz, Casady McKinney and Fehrle to set the score to 6-2.
- Trading the next two scores, Wayland Baptist clawed its way back with four unanswered, but the Evangels pulled back out in-front on a Lauryn Walters kill and a Faith Foutch service ace down the right sideline to set the score to 9-7.
- Walters once again put MACU into the lead when the Pioneers tallied the next two scores, however, Wayland Baptist captured the advantage at the midway point by scoring four of the next five to make it 13-11 on Ava Pinter's ace.
- A Franz side-out termination did little to slow down WBU as the Pioneers with three unanswered off a Vasquez kill and back-to-back MACU attack errors to stretch their lead to 16-12.
- The Evangels were unable to cut their deficit to less than three the rest of the way as Wayland Baptist secured its own 25-21 win to tie the match up at one apiece.
- Set Three
- The first nine points of the set were traded on side-out scoring, but the Pioneers were able to gain a firm grasp on the lead following three MACU errors to make it 7-5.
- Incredibly, the next 14 rallies were traded on side-out scores before the Evangels finally notched two-straight on a Vasquez missed swing before Miriam Nardi placed a cut shot from the right side to the middle for a kill, drawing it even at 14-all.
- While a Carlee Heidebrecht termination briefly put the Pioneers back into the lead, the Evangels seized control of the set with a dominant 8-1 run capped off on a Franz cross-court shot that tagged the right sideline, setting the score to 22-16.
- Even though Wayland Baptist was able to survive back-to-back set points to close it to 24-20, Stockhammer closed it out with a powerful in-system swing toward the back row to secure the victory.
- Set Four
- Wayland Baptist quickly started the fourth set by scoring three of the first four before a three-straight spurt by the Evangels on a Nardi kill and back-to-back Franz terminations briefly put MACU in-front 4-3.
- Playing for their season, the Pioneers were quickly able to recapture the advantage with a 4-1 surge to set the score to 7-5 on Heidebrecht's kill.
- Mid-America Christian battled back near the midway point following a string of three-straight featuring a Marlee Hunter ace and an assisted block by Fehrle and Franz to make it an 11-10 MACU edge.
- The two squads traded leads six times over the next 12 rallies as back-to-back Walters terminations during a 3-0 spurt gave MACU a two-point cushion at 18-16.
- The Pioneers fought back to tie it up on four more occasions, the last coming when Franz accidentally hit one out down the left sideline to make it 22-all. However, the Evangels would not be denied as Nardi tooled a kill off the top of the WBU block before Casady McKinney emphatically ended the match on back-to-back service aces to seal the 25-22 win.
MATCH NOTES
- Even though Mid-America Christian held a 58-43 kills advantage over Wayland Baptist, the Evangels struggled in the attack, committing a season-high 33 attack errors for a .169 hitting percentage while the Pioneers finished with a .211 hitting clip.
- A major difference in the match was Evangels great play in serve receive, allowing just one Pioneers service ace while MACU tallied eight for the match with three apiece coming from Sydney Martin and Casady McKinney.
- Once again, Sawyer Franz led MACU's attack efforts with a four-set career-high 22 kills on an extremely efficient .350 attack percentage while Lauryn Walters provided a major spark off the Evangels' bench with one of her best matches of the season, tallying eight terminations on a .429 hitting rate. By getting her 507th kill of the season, Franz surpassed Christiane Costa (506, 2010) for the third-most terminations in a single season in the NAIA Era (2007-present) and needs just 19 more to match Hanna Foecker (2020) for the second-most in a year.
- Ludmilla Souza led MACU's passing efforts with 27 assists with five digs and a pair of setter dump kills while McKinney also tallied 24 to go with six digs.
- Marlee Hunter led the back row defensive efforts with 22 digs while Annabeth Fehrle came away with four blocks off a solo and three assisted.
- Incredibly, the match marked the first time in program history that the Evangels defeated the same opponent five times in the same season after MACU topped Wayland Baptist twice in Sooner Athletic Conference play, a 3-1 win in the SAC Tournament Quarterfinal, a three-set sweep in the NCCAA Central Region Championship and wrapping it up with another 3-1 victory in the NCCAA Semifinal.
- Competing in its third-straight NCCAA semi, Mid-America Christian is advancing to the NCCAA National Championship for the second time in the last three seasons while the squad is seeking its first Division I Championship after falling in three tough sets to Columbia International in the 2021 title match.
