OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU volleyball team rebounded from a tough loss the previous night with a resounding sweep of Oklahoma Panhandle State inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Saturday to reach the midway point of Sooner Athletic Conference play.
 
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, Oklahoma Panhandle State 0 (25-20, 25-8, 25-18)
  • Mid-America Christian (11-7, 7-4 SAC)
  • Oklahoma Panhandle State (5-14, 3-8 SAC)

TOP PERFOMERS

• Alica Obusekova – 10 Kills, .212 ATK%, 8 Digs
• Casady McKinney – 21 Assists, 14 Digs
• Madison Lee – 20 Digs, 11 Assists
• Miriam Nardi – 9 Kills, .333 ATK%, 7 Digs
• Annabeth Fehrle - 8 Kills .412 ATK%

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • Oklahoma Panhandle State kept things close through the first 20 rallies as MACU held an 11-9 edge before MACU rattled off five in a row by taking advantage of four Aggies miscues to go with a Ryley Bowden service ace to stretch its lead to 16-9.
  • After the Aggies countered with three-unanswered, MACU swung back with four-straight as a pair of Alica Obusekova kills and two Aggies attack errors gave MACU its largest lead of the set at 20-12.
  • Mid-America Christian maintained its commanding advantage until it was 23-15, but OPSU rattled off four in a row to cut its deficit in-half at 23-19, forcing head coach Holly McKamie to take a timeout.
  • The Evangels responded well out of the break as Annabeth Fehrle kill brought it to set point before Lena Stockhammer finished it off with a powerful kill up the middle just two rallies later to wrap-up the 25-20 win.
• Set Two
  • Mid-America Christian lost the first point before scoring 14 consecutive points to take a commanding lead. The run featured three kills by Miriam Nardi, a pair of kills by Obusekova and seven attack errors by the Aggies.
  • OPSU scored five of the next nine points to make it 18-6, but the Evangels responded by going on a 7-2 run highlighted by a pair of Fehrle kills wrap-up the 25-8 win.
• Set Three
  • MACU jumped out to an early 8-2 lead, tallying seven kills during the run with five combined coming from the hands of Obusekova and Nardi. However, the Evangels couldn't shake OPSU, which ran off eight of the next 10 to trim the lead to 12-10.
  • After another MACU timeout, the Evangels scored three-straight points to make it 15-10 off of a kill apiece from Nardi and Lauryn Walters to go with a Casady McKinney ace, but back came the Aggies with three-unanswered of their own on a pair of blocks and Mia Sanchez ace to bring it to 15-13.
  • Following a Sanchez service miscue, the Evangels scored eight of the next 10 to take a commanding advantage before holding on for the 25-18 victory.

MATCH NOTES

• As a team, MACU recorded 41 kills compared to 22 for OPSU and finished with a hitting percentage of .208 to while holding the Aggies to a -.016, marking the second time this season the Evangels forced an opponent to hit in the negatives.
• Mid-America Christian got some stellar offensive and defensive play from its setters Casady McKinney and Madison Lee as both finished with double-doubles. McKinney finished the match with a team-high 21 assists and 14 digs while Lee led the defensive efforts with 20 digs and 11 assists.
• Alica Obusekova was the only Evangels attacker to reach double-digits in kills with 10 terminations on a .212 attack percentage while Miriam Nardi and Annabeth Fehrle were efficient in the attack. Nardi finished with nine kills on a .333 clip while Fehrle slammed eight kills on a .412 rate.
• By getting the win, MACU has now won five-straight matches against Oklahoma Panhandle State to improve to 11-8 in the all-time series since the two squads started facing each other in 2008.
• At the midway point of the Sooner Athletic Conference schedule, the Evangels climbed into a three-way tie for fourth in the league standings after Oklahoma City suffered a 3-0 loss at Texas Wesleyan and Wayland Baptist fell in five-sets at Science & Arts on Saturday.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will be challenged to start the second half of SAC play next weekend as the Evangels open the slate at Texas Wesleyan on Friday. Opening serve is slated for 7 p.m. inside the Sid Richardson Center in Fort Worth, Texas.