PLAINVIEW, Texas – After completing a first in four years last night at OPSU, the MACU volleyball team completed another first since 2019 inside the Hutcherson Center on Saturday afternoon as the Evangels swept Wayland Baptist in straight sets.
Junior libero
Marlee Hunter also reached a career milestone in her 17-dig effort as she has become just the fourth Evangels player to reach 1000 career digs in the NAIA Era (2007-present)
SCORE
- Mid-America Christian 3, Wayland Baptist 0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-21)
- Mid-America Christian (10-7, 6-2 SAC)
- Wayland Baptist (6-7, 5-3 SAC)
TOP PERFORMERS
MATCH SUMMARY
- Set One
- Mid-America Christian opened the match with a fast start, scoring on the first five rallies on kills by Lena Stockhammer, Sarah Jones and Marlee Hunter to go with a Ludmilla Souza ace and a WBU setting error.
- Wayland Baptist fought back to close the gap to two at 8-6, but the Evangels streaked away off of back-to-back Sawyer Franz terminations as MACU went on dominant 14-4 run capped off on four Stockhammer kills and a Jones finish to set the score to 22-10.
- The Pioneers were unable to muster much of a late rally by scoring four of the next six, but a Kalissa Ortega serve on set point that sailed out of bounds wrapped up the 25-14 final.
- Set Two
- MACU held the early momentum by winning six of the first eight rallies, but an 8-4 run by the Pioneers allowed Wayland Baptist to draw it even at 10-10 on an Alexa Hinojos block of Stockhammer's attack attempt.
- A service error side-out for MACU stemmed the tide back in the Evangels' favor as a five-unanswered streak made it a 15-10 Mid-America Christian advantage.
- After two unanswered Pioneers points closed the gap to 18-14, MACU finished strong by tallying scores on seven of the last eight rallies. During the run, Franz finished three terminations before Annabeth Fehrle finessed a kill up the middle on set point to secure the 25-15 win.
- Set Three
- The first half of the final set was a back-and-forth affair as the two squads traded leads three times before a Franz kill and back-to-back WBU attack errors gave MACU the 12-10 edge at the midway point.
- Later in the set, three straight Valentina Bozzato terminations briefly gave the Pioneers a 16-15 lead before MACU rattled off three in a row behind a service error, a Miriam Nardi kill and a Hunter service ace to recapture the two-point edge.
- Wayland Baptist once again fought back to tie it at 18 on kills by Fade Ogunbade and Selma Sutaj, but a Bozzato attack error and a Casady McKinney ace made it a 20-18 Evangels' edge, forcing the Pioneers to call a timeout.
- WBU managed to get the side-out following the break, but MACU put the Pioneers in dire straights by scoring three of the next four to make it a 23-20 contest on Stockhammer 12th termination of the match.
- The Pioneers got the next point to make it a two-point game, but a McKinney setter dump kill brought it to match-point before WBU's Carlee Heidebrecht just barely hit it long on the next rally to wrap-up the 25-21 final.
MATCH NOTES
- Mid-America Christian was very strong in the attack, tallying 43 kills on a .230 hitting percentage while the Evangels defense held Wayland Baptist to their lowest attack percentage since suffering a 3-1 loss at home to Oklahoma City on Sept. 1 as the Pioneers could only muster 29 kills on an .092 hitting rate.
- The Evangels in service gave the Pioneers fits. Even though MACU notched just seven aces, it committed a season-low three errors.
- The MACU offensive attack was very strong from the outside as freshman Sawyer Franz led the match with 13 kills on a .323 attack percentage while senior Lena Stockhammer tallied 12 kills on an efficient .250 hitting clip as well.
- Ludmilla Souza led the Evangels passing efforts with 18 assists to go with four digs and an ace while Casady McKinney notched a double-double with 13 assists, 11 digs and also turned in a pair of aces from the service line.
- Marlee Hunter's 1000-dig milestone came after finishing with a match-high 17 shovels, averaging 5.67 digs pers set as she now sits at 1002 career digs. Hunter also tallied three assists to go with two aces in the match.
- After losing the first 27 matches in the all-time series, Mid-America Christian has dominated the series in the last five years by winning eight of the last 10 meetings and have won six in a row in that time frame. The sweep was the first non-forfeited three-setter against the Pioneers inside the Hutcherson Center since MACU came away with a 25-21, 25-19, 25-17 victory in the venue on Sept. 6, 2019.
- In the matchup of the two teams tied for third in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings, the Evangels kept pace with Oklahoma City as MACU now only sits in a tie with the Stars for third in the league table.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will return home on Wednesday, Sept. 27 as the Evangels will face-off against John Brown in a crucial SAC battle inside the Gaulke Activity Center with a 7 p.m. first serve.
