OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU Volleyball team got back on-track in a big way in its Senior Night match inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Tuesday night as the Evangels swept Southwestern Christian in straight sets.
Prior to the start of the match, MACU honored its six graduating seniors: Ryley Bowden, Annabeth Fehrle, Sarah Jones-Stafford, Miriam Nardi, Lena Stockhammer and Lauryn Walters.
 
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, Southwestern Christian 0 (25-13, 25-16, 25-23)
  • Mid-America Christian (16-10, 12-7 SAC)
  • Southwestern Christian (5-19, 3-16 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Miriam Nardi – 14 Kills, .320 ATK%, 4 Digs
• Lena Stockhammer – 7 Kills, .636 ATK%, 3 Digs
• Lauryn Walters – 7 Kills, .250 ATK%, 5 Digs
• Casady McKinney – 15 Assists, 6 Digs, 3 Aces
• Madison Lee – 14 Assists, 8 Digs, 3 Aces
• Ryley Bowden – 13 Digs, 5 Assists

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • Southwestern Christian managed to keep it close through the first 16 rallies as a Megan Graham kill allowed the Eagles to close to a 9-7 game before the Evangels strung together a dominant 9-1 run capped off on a Sarah Jones-Stafford kill to make it 18-8.
  • After trading the next two points, the Eagles managed to make a dent in MACU's advantage by scoring four in a row with Lotta Lischka's service ace closing the gap to 19-13.
  • Casady McKinney's setter dump side-out kill completely stemmed the tide on the ensuing rally as the Evangels closed out the set by scoring the final six as back-to-back Madison Lee service aces ended it in MACU's favor, 25-13.
• Set Two
  • SCU started out fast out of the gate by scoring four of the first five points before back-to-back Kloe Booker-Searcy terminations made it a 7-3 Eagles advantage through the first 10 rallies.
  • The Evangels defense managed to put from frustration into Southwestern Christian, forcing SCU into committing four attack errors while Lauryn Walters notched a pair of kills during the MACU 8-0 run before Lee notched her third ace of the match to make it an 11-7 Evangels advantage.
  • Southwestern Christian battled back to make it a one-point game in the 25^th and 27^th rallies, the last coming on a Neveah Ramsay kill to make it 14-13, however, the Evangels put a stop to it by stringing together a dominant 11-3 run to close out the set as Lena Stockhammer powered the set point kill off the Eagles block to wrap-up the 25-16 win.
• Set Three
  • Once again, it was a hard-fought, back-and-forth battle through the first 13 rallies as Southwestern Christian managed to grab a brief 7-6 lead off of back-to-back MACU attack errors before the Evangels rattled off five in a row as a McKinney service ace and a kill apiece for Stockhammer and Miriam Nardi before Ramsay's attack error made it 11-7 in favor of MACU.
  • Following an Eagles timeout, SCU managed to get a pair of points back before the Evangels once again put SCU behind the eight-ball with four unanswered on a pair of kills from Nardi and Stockhammer to go with two SCU hitting miscues to bring it to 15-9.
  • Southwestern Christian refused to go down without a fight as the Eagles scored 10 of the next 14 points to eventually tie it up at 19-all on an Alonda Esparza service ace, forcing MACU head coach Holly McKamie to burn a timeout.
  • The Evangels recovered well following the break, scoring the first three out of it on a kill apiece from Annabeth Fehrle and Stockhammer to go with an SCU error, however, the Eagles once again scratched back four of the next five to tie it up at 23-23.
  • After committing the attack error that drew it even, Walters redeemed herself in a huge way as she perfectly pinned a kill into the back right corner before Ryley Bowden abruptly ended it with a match point service ace to seal the 25-23 win.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian finished the match with 42 kills on a solid .250 attack percentage while the defense held Southwestern Christian to just 28 kills and forced 17 attack errors for a .094 attack percentage.
• MACU's attack was on-point through the first two sets as the Evangels committed just three attack errors on 69 attacks before going cold in set three, tallying 10 errors for a .106 hitting clip.
• The Evangels strong serving from Saturday carried over to the win over SCU as the Evangels tallied nine aces as a team, averaging 3.0 aces per set for the match.
• Miriam Nardi, Lena Stockhammer and Lauryn Walters were huge for MACU in their Senior Night match as Nardi finished with a match-high 14 kills on a .320 hitting percentage, Lena Stockhammer bashed seven kills on a season-best .636 attack rate while Walters also notched seven terminations on a solid .250 hitting clip.
• The setter tandem of Casady McKinney and Madison Lee were both solid in the match as McKinney dished out 15 assists to go with six digs while Lee tallied 14 assists with eight digs while both setters each tallied three aces apiece. As a result of the trio of aces, Casady McKinney moved into second on MACU's NAIA Era (2007-present) career aces list at 146, surpassing a MACU legend in Hannah Luedtke (2013-15, 144) and sits just five away from tying Kaylie Walker's (2018-21) program record.
• Ryley Bowden led MACU's back row defensive efforts with 13 digs while Sydney Martin was the only other Evangel to break double-figures with 11 shovels.
• With the result, Mid-America Christian has now won four-straight against the Eagles as well as 13 of the last 14 meetings dating back to 2019.
• With only three matches remaining in the regular season, the win allowed MACU to stay within striking distance for one of the top four spots in the SAC standings as the Evangels sit in a tie for fourth with Wayland Baptist with the Pioneers currently holding the tiebreaker with the two squads set to square off in the regular season finale.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will now brace for a pivotal match in its regular season home finale on Friday as the Evangels will host crosstown rival Oklahoma City in its Homecoming match. First serve is slated for 7 p.m. inside the Gaulke Activity Center.