OKLAHOMA CITY – After playing its first eight matches of the season on the road, the MACU volleyball team put up an incredible performance in all facets inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Thursday night as the Evangels cruised to a three-set sweep over crosstown rival Southwestern Christian.
 
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, Southwestern Christian 0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-14)
  • Mid-America Christian (5-4, 2-0 SAC)
  • Southwestern Christian (2-4, 0-1 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Lena Stockhammer – 13 Kills, .250 ATK%, 3 Blocks, 2 Digs
• Sawyer Franz – 11 Kills, .391 ATK%, 12 Digs
• Casady McKinney – 34 Assists, 6 Digs, 5 Kills, .444 ATK%
• Annabeth Fehrle – 7 Blocks, 5 Kills
• Marlee Hunter – 14 Digs, 3 Aces

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • The first 20 rallies was a back-and-forth affair between the Eagles and Evangels as the two squads exchanged leads three times and drew even on four occasions as a Dasia Ingram termination for SCU brought it even at 10-10.
  • After Sarah Jones tapped it over the Eagles block on the right side to get the side out, Mid-America Christian strung together a dominant 12-unanswered run, including three Marlee Hunter service aces, and a pair of kills each for Lena Stockhammer and Casady McKinney to make it a 22-10 game.
  • The Evangels scored three of the final five to secure the 25-12 victory, out-hitting SCU with 14 kills on a .256 attack rate while the Eagles notched just seven terminations on a -.029 attack rate.
• Set Two
  • Unlike the opening set, Mid-America Christian came out on-fire, rattling off seven-straight behind a trio of Faith Foutch service aces and a pair of Sawyer Franz slams.
  • The Evangels never led by less than five through the first half, but another solid run with MACU winning eight out of 11 rallies capped off on back-to-back Stockhammer kills stretch the Evangels' edge to 20-10.
  • MACU wouldn't lead by less than eight the rest of the way before securing the 25-15 win. Once again, the attacking disparity was prevalent for the Evangels, recording 13 kills on a .242 percentage while once again holding the Eagles into the negatives with five kills at a -.032 rate.
• Set Three
  • Despite SCU jumping out to a 7-5 advantage early in the set, Mid-America Christian quickly flipped the script following a Stockhammer tap-over kill for the side out as the Evangels rattled off a 9-2 surge to grab a 14-9 lead midway through.
  • Even though the Eagles took four of the next six rallies to close the gap to three, Stockhammer set the tone the rest of the way by recording kills on four of the following six rallies during 9-1 run to close out another dominant 25-14 victory.
  • For the third straight set, the Evangels held Southwestern Christian to a negative hitting percentage, tallying just six terminations on a match-low -.091 attack rate while the Evangels pulled out 15 kills on a .286 rate.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian wrapped up the match by totaling 42 kills on a .262 attack percentage while the Evangels defensively held the Eagles to only 18 kills on a -.051 hitting rate, the seventh-lowest attack percentage MACU has allowed an opponent in the NAIA Era (2007-present), which includes the lowest percentage the Eagles have hit against MACU in that time frame.
• For the second straight match, the Evangels were sensational in serve receive, allowing Southwestern Christian just one service ace while posting a daunting .976 receive percentage.
• MACU's blocking was at its peak in the match, recording a season-high nine blocks while averaging 3.0 blocks per set.
• For the second-straight match, Lena Stockhammer and Sawyer Franz each recorded double-digit kills. Stockhammer led the way with 13 terminations on a .250 attack percentage while Sawyer Franz notched a double-double with 11 kills on a blazing .391 attack rate to go with 12 digs.
• Casady McKinney led the passing efforts with a three-set season-high 34 assists to go with five kills on a .444 hitting clip and six digs in the defense.
• Marlee Hunter led the back-row defense with 14 digs while Annabeth Fehrle shattered her career-high in blocks with seven assisted rejections.
• Hunter and Faith Foutch were sensational from the service line by recording all seven of MACU's aces as Foutch tallied four dimes to go with no errors while Hunter put down three aces.
• MACU has now won six straight matches against Southwestern Christian inside the Gaulke Activity Center since 2019, dropping just one set in that time frame to go with five consecutive three-set sweeps.
• With the Evangels allowing SCU to score just 41 points, it was the second-fewest points the Eagles notched against MACU in a match in the NAIA Era with the lowest (38) coming on Nov. 19, 2010.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will wrap-up a busy week on Saturday with a pair of matches at the College of the Ozarks Fall Classic being played in Point Lookout, Missouri. The Evangels will open the classic with a 2 p.m. match against Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis before wrapping up with a 4 p.m. match against the host Bobcats.