CHICKASHA, Okla. – The MACU Volleyball team saw its 19-match win streak against Science & Arts come to a tough end on Wednesday night as the Evangels suffered a 3-1 defeat inside the Drover Fieldhouse.
 
SCORE

• Science & Arts 3, Mid-America Christian 1 (26-24, 25-22, 18-25, 25-23)
  • Mid-America Christian (14-9, 10-6 SAC)
  • Science & Arts (12-13, 8-8 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Alica Obusekova – 14 Kills, 22 Digs
• Madison Lee – 27 Assists, 13 Digs
• Casady McKinney – 21 Assists, 8 Digs, 4 Aces
• Ryley Bowden – 19 Digs

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • Mid-America Christian got off a slow start, conceding the first three points to the Drovers before stringing together an 8-3 run capped off on a Lena Stockhammer kill to give the Evangels the 8-6 advantage.
  • Science & Arts gained the lead back at the midway point following a 5-1 run that made it an 11-9 game on an Alacia Ledoux kill.
  • At the start of the second half, both teams traded runs as a MACU four-unanswered surge put the Evangels back in-front at 14-12 following a pair of kills by Alica Obusekova, a Sarah Jones-Stafford kill and a Sydney Martin service ace, but Science & Arts surged back by scoring nine of the next 13 points to grab the 21-18 advantage on Giselle Calderon termination.
  • Following a timeout, the Evangels gained the momentum, scoring five-straight to put MACU in a favorable situation with Casady McKinney's service ace making it a 23-21 Evangels advantage.
  • However, the Drovers finished the set strong by scoring five of the final six points to secure a 26-24 extra-point victory.
• Set Two
  • The second stanza proved to be a back-and-forth tug of war with both teams struggling to sustain a run as the first 21 rallies before Mid-America Christian rattled off three-unanswered off of a trio of Drovers attack errors to make it a 13-11 MACU lead.
  • Even though the Drovers managed to draw it even on three-straight rally trades at 14, 15 and 16, a pair of Lena Stockhammer slams allowed MACU to retake an 18-16 advantage before the Drovers strung together a 6-1 run to put USAO back in-front 22-19 on a Yaiza Larrauri ace pinned down on the back line.
  • The Evangels were unable to put together any late runs as the Drovers successfully converted on three-straight side-out points to hold on for the 25-22 win.
• Set Three
  • After exchanging the lead four times through the first 11 rallies, MACU managed to grab the advantage for good after taking advantage of a pair of Drovers attack errors with a Sarah Jones-Stafford kill from the middle to make it a 10-8 game.
  • While USAO kept it to within a point three times on the next five rallies, Mid-America Christian seized complete control of the set following Obusekova's side-out kill on the 24^th rally as the Evangels rattled off seven-unanswered, featuring a pair of kills each for Obusekova and Natalia Rodriguez to go with an Annabeth Fehrle termination as well as a Madison Lee service ace to stretch the edge out to 19-11.
  • Science & Arts managed to scratch a few points off of MACU's lead until it was 22-17, but MACU finished the set strong by scoring three of the final four, ending it on back-to-back Lauryn Walters kills to wrap-up the 25-18 win.
• Set Four
  • It was another back-and-forth tug-of-war with each team making small runs in the early going as the Drovers held a two-point lead following a Morgan Kobe ace. However, the Evangels seized back control of the set by scoring seven of the next nine points with three of the points coming from Rodriguez and Casady McKinney service aces to make it a 14-11 MACU advantage midway through the set.
  • Even though the Drovers countered with three in a row to tie it back up, Mid-America Christian took back the lead on a Laurrari service error by taking five of the next six, building the advantage out to its largest at 19-15 on another Obusekova kill.
  • After Obuskeova was blocked by Morgan Kobe on the following rally, the Drovers found the momentum in a big way by firing off a 9-2 run to put the Evangels backs against the wall when Lena Stockhammer's attack attempt went long to bring it to match point at 24-21.
  • Mid-America Christian scratched and clawed to stay alive, surviving a pair of match points with Miriam Nardi dropping a kill in before Stockhammer tooled a kill off the block to close to 24-23. However, after a long, sustained rally, USAO's Alacia Ledoux managed to tool an attack attempt off the MACU block that just barely fell outside the line for a kill to wrap-up the 25-23 final.

MATCH NOTES

• Even though Mid-America Christian held a 59-46 advantage in kills over Science & Arts, the Evangels hit into 30 attack errors to drop their attack percentage to .159 while the Drovers committed 20 hitting miscues to hit for a marginally better .160 hitting clip.
• The Evangels especially struggled against the Drovers blocking scheme as USAO finished the match with 11 blocks while MACU could only tally six rejections at the net.
• Overall, MACU players finished in double-digit kills with Alica Obusekova with 14 while Lena Stockhammer in her return from injury finished with 12, but both did struggle against the Drovers blocking with the pair combining for 15 attack errors to finish with just a .159 and .095 hitting percentage each.
• Annabeth Fehrle on the right side while both Sarah Jones-Stafford and Natalia Rodriguez from the middle were effective with their swings as Fehrle tallied 10 kills on a .240 rate while Jones-Stafford notched eight kills on a .316 clip and Rodriguez bashed seven kills on a .263.
• Madison Lee led the MACU passing efforts with a double-double performance, dishing out 27 assists with 13 digs while Casady McKinney notched 23 assists with eight digs while also putting down four service aces.
• On-top of leading the attacking efforts, Obusekova recorded her second 20-plus dig performance with a team-high 22 digs while Ryley Bowden and Sydney Martin each finished with 19 and 16 digs in the back row.
• Despite MACU's blocking struggles, Jones-Stafford put together another solid day at the net with five of MACU's blocks with a pair of solo rejections and three block assists.
• Since USAO started its volleyball program in 2016, the result broke MACU's string of dominance in the series as the Evangels during their 19-match win streak had only dropped six total sets to the Drovers in all of their previous meetings. However, USAO has been an improved program of late after taking the Evangels to five sets inside the Gaulke Activity Center last season.

UP NEXT

• After spending three weeks away from the Gaulke Activity Center, Mid-America Christian will now brace for a massive weekend as the Evangels host College of the Ozarks and John Brown inside the Gaulke Activity Center. The Evangels will take on College of the Ozarks at 7 p.m. on Friday before facing the Golden Eagles at 1 p.m. on Saturday.