FORT WORTH, Texas – The MACU Volleyball team made a statement in its start to the second half of Sooner Athletic Conference play as the Evangels went into the Sid Richardson Center and swept Texas Wesleyan for the program's first ever victory over the Lady Rams.
 
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, Texas Wesleyan 0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-22)
  • Mid-America Christian (12-7, 8-4 SAC)
  • Texas Wesleyan (13-7, 9-3 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Miriam Nardi – 12 Kills, .300 ATK%
• Casady McKinney – 18 Assists, 8 Digs
• Madison Lee – 13 Assists, 8 Digs, 2 Aces
• Ryley Bowden – 12 Digs, 3 Assists
• Sarah Jones-Stafford – 6 Blocks, 4 Kills, .214 ATK%

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • In the early going, Texas Wesleyan captured the early momentum by scoring six of the first seven points before Mid-America Christian rallied back with a 5-1 run of its own as Madison Lee dropped a service ace in bring it to 6-5. However, a Ruby Rumohr ace and Hannah Rubis kill following a service error stretched the TXWES lead back out to four.
  • Even though the Lady Rams held a three-point advantage at the midway point, back-to-back Miriam Nardi kills to go with a Sarah Jones-Stafford termination and Lauran Richards attack error during a 4-1 run allowed MACU to make it square at 14-all.
  • Texas Wesleyan eventually worked its lead back out to three following a pair of Rubis kills as well as a team-up block between Rubis and Lyric Biggiers set the score to 20-17, forcing head coach Holly McKamie to call her final timeout.
  • Out of the break, the Evangels put together an incredible finish following Natalia Rodriguez's immediate side-out termination as MACU scored on eight of the final 10 rallies as Jones-Stafford and Lena Stockhammer rejected Sydney Alexander's attack attempt on set point to seal the 25-22 win.
• Set Two
  • After trading the first four rallies, TXWES seized control of the set with five-unanswered, forcing three MACU attack errors to go with a kill apiece from Rubis and Makenna Gantt to make it a 7-2 game.
  • The Evangels were unable to put a dent in the Lady Rams advantage until the start of the second half of the set. With Texas Wesleyan leading by six, another strong Nardi finish allowed MACU to fire off five in a row as Lee scored her second service ace to close it to a one-point game at 15-14.
  •  TXWES claimed two of the next three before another big 5-1 MACU run was capped off on Casady McKinney dropping an ace down the left sideline for the 20-18 Evangels' edge.
  • The Lady Rams scored the next two to tie it back up, but once again, it was the Evangels that finished strong by tallying five of the next seven as Nardi slammed the set-point kill to wrap-up the 25-22 win.
• Set Three
  • Unlike the first two sets where Texas Wesleyan got off to a fast start, Mid-America Christian started off fast by scoring on four of the first five. However, TXWES quickly turned the tables starting in the eighth rally by going on a commanding 12-4 run to stretch its lead out to 15-9 on a Grave Pavelka kill.
  • The 25^th rally was a long, grueling rally that was eventually ended on a Nardi kill tooled off the block. That termination completely shifted the momentum of the set as MACU scored five in a row to close the gap to 15-14.
  • The Lady Rams were looking to build back by scoring two of the next three, but MACU refused to allow TXWES to run the lead back out as the Evangels countered with another powerful 7-2 surge as Jones-Stafford teamed up on a block with Annabeth Fehrle to make it a 22-19 Evangels' edge.
  • Texas Wesleyan tried to keep it close by scoring three of the next four, but MACU refused to let the Lady Rams take the set as Jones-Stafford dropped a kill in to bring it to match point before Sydney Martin forced a shank on her service for a match-winning ace to wrap-up a third-consecutive 25-22 result.

MATCH NOTES

• It was a well-played defensive match for both teams as Mid-America Christian held a slight 39-33 advantage in kills, but hit for a .157 attack percentage while holding the Texas Wesleyan to its second-lowest attack percentage in Sooner Athletic Conference play at .100.
• Miriam Nardi led the MACU attack once again with 12 kills on a fantastic .300 attack percentage while Annabeth Fehrle finished with eight kills.
• Both of MACU's setters narrowly missed notching double-doubles as Casady McKinney dished out a match-best 18 assists to go with eight digs while Madison Lee tallied 13 dimes and eight digs along with a pair of aces. With her passing efforts, McKinney surpassed Hannah Luedtke (2056) for second in MACU's NAIA Era career assist record book, ending the match with 2072 in her career.
• Sarah Jones-Stafford was massive for MACU in the front row with six assisted blocked on MACU's seven total blocks while also tallying four kills in the attack. The graduate student middle reached a career milestone in her assisted block that made it 15-12 in set three as she reached her 200^th career block. Jones-Stafford is just the fifth Evangel in the NAIA Era (2007-present) to reach 200 rejections, needing just six more to match Kacee Montgomery (2012-13) for fourth on the list.
• The back row defensive efforts were spread out for the Evangels as five players finished with at least eight digs as Ryley Bowden led the way with 12 shovels.
• Since first facing the SAC powerhouse volleyball program in 2005, Mid-America Christian came up with its first ever victory over the Lady Rams in the 29^th meeting inside the Sid Richardson Center. However, the Evangels had been making strides in the series over the last two years as the last four meetings have been very close.
• By getting the win, MACU moved into a four-way tie for third in the SAC standings and sit only a game-back of the Lady Rams for second in the conference standings.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will wrap-up the weekend with one of its toughest road tests of the season on Saturday as the Evangels go nose-to-nose with Nelson at 1 p.m. inside the Sheaffer Center in Waxahachie, Texas.