OKLAHOMA CITY – The Sooner Athletic Conference unveiled its 2024 All-Conference Team for volleyball on Wednesday afternoon as Mid-America Christian had five standouts earn league honors while junior setter Casady McKinney became MACU's first ever SAC Setter of the Year.
Joining McKinney on the All-SAC First Team was senior right-side hitter Miriam Nardi while grad student middle blocker Sarah Jones-Stafford garnered Second Team accolades.
Junior outside hitter Alica Obusekova and junior libero Ryley Bowden also earned a nod from the league with Honorable Mention status.
In her third season with the Evangels, McKinney is considered one of the best all-around setters in the league. Not only has she dished out a team-leading 634 assists (5.87 per set), but she is also the team's leader in service aces (50, 0.46 per set) while notching 253 digs on the defensive end, averaging 2.34 per set.
The Yukon, Oklahoma native is also downright dangerous in the attack as she's registered 42 kills on a highly efficient .310 hitting percentage.
Her 50-ace season currently sits as the seventh-most recorded for MACU in a year in the NAIA Era (2007-present), needing just eight more to match her own record of 58 set back in 2022. Earlier this season, McKinney became MACU's NAIA Era career service aces leader as she currently own 157 dimes and also sits in second on MACU's career assists list (2279). With 871 digs, she also cracked into MACU's career top 10.
McKinney is collecting her third All-SAC honor after garnering Second Team accolades in 2023 and was an Honorable Mention during her 2022 freshman campaign.
Also in her third season at MACU, Miriam is in the midst of the best season of her Evangels career. The Verona, Italy native has led the Evangels attack with 309 kills, averaging 2.89 per set on a team-best .270 hitting percentage, which currently ranks as the ninth-best single season attack rate in MACU's record book.
In her MACU tenure, the powerful pin-hitter has established herself as one of the most effective attackers in the Evangels' program history as her 807 career kills is currently fifth in MACU's books, needing just seven more to surpass Laurel Church (2015-17) for fourth and 38 terminations to top Christiane Costa (2009-10) for third while her .234 career hitting percentage is the sixth-most efficient rate on the books.
Nardi is garnering her second All-SAC award after being named a Second Team honoree in 2022.
For the first time in her three-year MACU career, Stafford is collecting an All-SAC honor as she too is also in the midst of her best year with the Evangels. On-top of tallying 149 kills on the squad's second-best attack percentage (.262), the middle from Moore, Oklahoma has registered a 83 blocks so far, the ninth-most in a single season in the NAIA Era and just one behind her own career-high set last season.
While boasting the 10th-best career hitting percentage in the NAIA Era at MACU (.224), Stafford solidified herself near the top of MACU's career blocks record book as she moved into second on the career list with 238 career rejections, sitting only behind Becca Anderson (395).
Another three-year player for MACU, Bowden has been a key piece of an Evangels back row defense in her first season as the team's libero. The Oklahoma City native leads the team with 487 digs, which currently sits as the eighth-most for a MACU player in one season in the NAIA Era while her 4.51 per set average is also the seventh-best clip in that time frame.
On-top of her great defensive numbers, Bowden has also been a strong producer from the service line and in the passing game as her 41 aces ranks as the third-most on the team while also dishing out the third-most assists with 133, which also ranks as the third-most non-setter dimes in a season in the NAIA Era.
In her final season, Bowden currently ranks 10th in MACU's career record books in digs per set (2.61) and with 90 service aces, she needs to land just one more serve to crack into the career top 10.
In her first season at MACU, Obusekova has played a massive impact in both the Evangels attack and defense. The Bratislava, Slovakia product has turned in the second-most kills on the team with 256 on a 2.37 per set average and a .168 hitting percentage. However, she's been even better in the back row for MACU as she's also notched the second-most digs (328, 3.04 per set).
Mid-America Christian will be looking to continue its successful postseason run tonight as the Evangels take on new SAC rival College of the Ozarks in the NCCAA Central Region Championship match at 6 p.m. inside Keeter Gymnasium.
