POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – The MACU volleyball team put up a very tough fight in the NCCAA National Championship match inside Keeter Gymnasium on the campus of College of the Ozarks, but the Evangels saw their season come to a tough end as the Lancers handed the Evangels a 3-1 defeat.

It is the second time in the last three seasons that the Evangels made it to the NCCAA Championship game and the third straight year that MACU had made it to at least the semifinal round.
 
SCORE

• Grace 3, Mid-America Christian 1 (25-20, 22-25, 25-21, 25-20)
  • Mid-America Christian (25-13)
  • Grace (24-11)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Sawyer Franz – 17 Kills, .224 ATK%, 3 Digs
• Ludmilla Souza – 29 Assists, 4 Digs
• Marlee Hunter – 21 Digs
• Sydney Martin – 19 Digs, 2 Aces

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • It was a back-and-forth battle through the first 15 rallies with neither team leading by more than one point, but Mid-America Christian went on a three-unanswered run following a Lena Stockhammer kill as a Sydney Martin service ace gave MACU the 10-8 lead.
  • Following an Alisha Leffring kill, MACU built its lead out to 13-9 behind three straight Sawyer Franz terminations.
  • After GC's Riley Owens hit a service out the right side to make it 16-12 MACU, the Lancers strung together an 8-2 run to capture a late 20-18 advantage.
  • Grace was able to prevent MACU from climbing closer to one the rest of the way, scoring the final three points to take the opening set, 25-20.
• Set Two
  • Trading the first two rallies, MACU seized control of the set off Franz's side-out kill tooled off the Grace block as the Evangels scored seven of the next nine points to take an 8-3 advantage off a Jadyn Ross attack error.
  • Grace was able to cut the Evangels' edge down to two at 10-8 on a Cassidy Culbert kill, but MACU rallied back with six of the next eight, stretch the lead to 16-10 on Franz's follow-up termination toward the back row.
  • After trading the next two, the Lancers went on a strong 10-4 run to tie it up at 21-all off a Ludmilla Souza ballhandling error.  
  • Miriam Nardi's side-out kill from the middle toward the back row stemmed the tide for the Evangels. MACU scored four of the final five with Franz finishing the set with a powerful slam off the back-row defender and out the side for the 25-22 win.
• Set Three
  • Giving up the first point, Mid-America Christian quickly found its stride by scoring four unanswered to start a 12-3 run as Casady McKinney's ace dropped in just over the net.
  • The Evangels led by six to seven points over the next several rallies as MACU maintained a seven-point cushion following Annabeth Fehrle's tapper deflected off the block to make it 18-11.
  • The Lancers pieced together a downright dominant run following a Nardi attack error on the ensuing rally as GC scored on 12 of the next 13 rallies as block by Livia Tate and Katie Swanson made it a 23-19 game.
  • The Evangels tried to fight back off of back-to-back kills from Franz and Lauryn Walters, but Grace closed out the set following a service error with a block by Tate and Swanson again on set point to seal the 25-21 win.
• Set Four
  • Following a close first eight rallies, the Evangels once again gained the early momentum by rattling off five in a row off a pair of Fehrle kills and three Lancers hitting errors, setting the score to 8-5.
  • After Fehrle notched another kill to make it 9-6, Grace surged in-front by scoring seven in a row during a 9-1 run as another MACU attack miscue made it a 15-10 GC lead.
  • A Franz kill blasted down the left side closed it to 17-14, but the Lancers once again pieced together another big run, rattling off four-straight to make it a 21-14 game off Leffring's termination.
  • The Evangels tried to battle back by scoring four in a row following a Fehrle side-out kill to make it 21-18, but MACU was unable to slow down the Lancers enough late in the contest as Grace scored four of the final six points to seal the 25-20 final.

MATCH NOTES

• Grace's blocking scheme frustrated Mid-America Christian's attack, holding the Evangels to 48 kills on a .129 attack percentage as 13 of MACU's 26 attack errors came off of Lancer blocks. Meanwhile, Grace was efficient in its attack, scoring 57 kills on a .211 hitting percentage.
• Sawyer Franz led MACU's attack efforts with 17 kills on a .224 hitting clip. Annabeth Fehrle and Miriam Nardi also finished in double-digit kills with 12 terminations on a .194 attack percentage while Nardi talled 11 kills on a .222 hitting rate.
• Ludmilla Souza led MACU's passing efforts with 29 assists to go with four digs while Casady McKinney notched 15 assists to go with seven digs.
• Marlee Hunter and Sydney Martin led MACU's back-row defense with Hunter tallying 21 digs while Hunter turned in 19 digs to go with a pair of service aces.
• At the conclusion of the tournament, the Evangels had two players named to the NCCAA All-Tournament Team. Franz was selected as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after finishing the five-match slate with 84 kills, averaging 4.94 kills per set on a .379 hitting percentage to go with 11 digs and three blocks. Marlee Hunter was also named to the All-Tournament Team with 80 digs, averaging 4.71 digs per set to go with 20 assists and five aces.

SEASON NOTES

• Mid-America Christian wraps up its season with a 25-13 overall record, marking just the second time in the NAIA Era (2007-present) that the Evangels recorded 25 or more wins in a season.
• The Evangels also finished as the NCCAA National Finalist for the second time in the last three seasons after losing the championship match in 2021 to Columbia International.
• To conclude the season, freshman Sawyer Franz finished with the third-most kills in a single season with 524, finishing just two shy of tying Hanna Foecker (2020) for second in the books. Senior outside hitter Lena Stockhammer also tallied a top 10 kills mark with 413, making it the sixth-most terminations in a season.
• With 808 assists, sophomore setter Casady McKinney found herself in the top 10 record book once again with the eighth-most in a year, tallying just two shy of Calle Solie (2009) for seventh. McKinney also turned in her second top 10 mark in season service aces with 49, marking the ninth-most.
• Overall, four Evangels finished in the top 10 for service aces in a season as senior setter Ludmilla Souza finished in third with 56, just two shy of the record held by McKinney (2022) and Hannah Luedtke (2014). Marlee Hunter and Sydney Martin also finished with 51 aces apiece for the sixth-most in a year.
• Hunter once again finished in the top five for most digs in a season with 663, notching the fourth-most shovels in a season, just eight away from Maegan Plunk (2020) for third in the book.
• While MACU as a team didn't finish with as many blocks as years past, senior middle blocker Sarah Jones finished with the eighth-most total blocks in a season at 85 and the seventh-most assisted blocks with 72.
• As a team, Mid-America Christian finished in the top five in several offensive statistical categories, including: kills (1783, 2^nd), kills per set (12.7, 2^nd), attack percentage (.204, 2^nd), total attacks (4981, 3^rd), assists (1674, 2^nd), assists per set (12.0, 1^st), aces (299, 1^st), aces per set (2.1, 1^st) as well as digs (2335, 4^th).
• The Evangels had two seniors play their final match in Faith Foutch and Ludmilla Souza. Foutch wrapped up her MACU career as the program's record holder for most sets played at 582 as well as third in career service aces at 126, 92 of which came in the last two seasons and eighth in career digs with 938. In her lone season with the Evangels, Souza led the team in service aces (56) and finished second on the squad in assists with 632, averaging 5.18 dimes per set.