GOODWELL, Okla. – The MACU Volleyball team was able to shake off a cold start in the frigid Oklahoma panhandle on Friday night as the Evangels pulled out the three-set sweep inside Anchor D Arena over Oklahoma Panhandle State for a crucial conference win.
The victory on-top of an Oklahoma City loss to Texas Wesleyan allowed the Evangels to move into a four-way tie for third in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings heading into the final match of the regular season against one of those tied teams in Wayland Baptist.
SCORE
- Mid-America Christian 3, Oklahoma Panhandle State 0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-18)
- Mid-America Christian (18-10, 14-7 SAC)
- Oklahoma Panhandle State (8-21, 6-15 SAC)
TOP PERFORMERS
MATCH SUMMARY
- Set One
- Mid-America Christian opened the contest by scoring three of the first four points before the Aggies put the Evangels behind the eight-ball by rattling off a 12-4 run take a 14-7 lead over MACU at the midway point of the set.
- After trading a pair of three-point blows, a Lena Stockhammer side-out kill allowed the Evangels to find their stride, firing off seven-unanswered as Sarah Jones-Stafford's rejection tied the match up at 17-all.
- The Aggies last lead of the set came on Sydney Martin's service error on the ensuing rally as MACU countered by closing out the set with another dominant 8-3 run capped off on a Natalia Rodriguez termination to seal the 25-21 win.
- Set Two
- While it was neck-and-neck through the first eight rallies, an Alica Obusekova kill jumpstarted a strong 9-3 Evangels surge capped on another Stockhammer slam to make it a 14-6 MACU advantage halfway through the set.
- OPSU slowly chiseled away at the Evangels' edge over the next 15 rallies as 5-1 Aggies run closed it to a 20-15 contest on an assisted block by Taylore Alsaid and Brenna Moore.
- MACU did not allow the Aggies to climb any closer as the Evangels closed out the set with a 5-1 run as Jones-Stafford tapped in a kill down the left side on set point to wrap-up the 25-16 win.
- Set Three
- Neither team was able to muster much of a run through the first 13 rallies before Annabeth Fehrle's kill fired off a 4-1 MACU surge capped off on a co-op block by Jones-Stafford and Obusekova to make it 11-7 Evangels.
- The Aggies made it interesting nearly halfway through, rattling off three in a row to make it a one-point game before the Evangels swung back with another 4-1 run of their own on back-to-back Miriam Nardi and Obusekova kills to set the score to 15-11.
- Oklahoma Panhandle State made things interesting by scoring five of the next seven to take a brief 18-17 lead, however, MACU ended the set with an aggressive attack, scoring six kills on an eight-unanswered run to close out the 25-18 sweep.
MATCH NOTES
- Mid-America Christian was solid in the attack, registering 42 kills on a .257 attack percentage while OPSU was only able to tally 30 terminations on an .096 hitting clip.
- While the Evangels are not considered a blocking team, MACU's blocking scheme did cause the Aggies some fits as MACU tallied seven rejections while the Panhandle State placed just two blocks down.
- Miriam Nardi led a balanced MACU attack that saw eight different players tally kills with five notching at least six kills, as Nardi recorded nine kills on a solid .286 attack percentage to go with three blocks at the net.
- Lena Stockhammer was able to hit with an incredible efficiency, hammering eight kills on a .538 hitting percentage.
- Sarah Jones-Stafford was downright excellent in both the attack and the defense, coming up with seven kills on a .385 attack rate to go with a team-high four blocks, as her 230 career rejections allowed her to surpass Laurel Church (228, 2015-17) for second on MACU's NAIA Era (2007-present) career blocks list.
- MACU's setter duo continued to be excellent as Madison Lee dished out a team-high 15 assists to go with seven digs while Casady McKinney came away with a double-double, shoveling a team-best 14 digs to go with 11 assists.
- By getting the win, MACU improved to 12-8 all-time against Oklahoma Panhandle State while extending its win streak to six over the Aggies since the 2022 season.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will close out its regular season with one of its most crucial matches of the season as the Evangels head down to Plainview, Texas to play Wayland Baptist at 1 p.m. inside the Hutcherson Center on Saturday.
