POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – The MACU Volleyball team saw its strong 2024 season come to a tough end in pool play at the NCCAA National Championships inside Keeter Gymnasium on Thursday afternoon as the Evangels fell to top-seeded Columbia International in straight sets.
 
SCORE

• Columbia International 3, Mid-America Christian 0 (25-14, 25-19, 25-11)
  • Mid-America Christian (21-14)
  • Columbia International (35-3)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Alica Obusekova – 8 Kills, 10 Digs
• Madison Lee – 11 Assists, 5 Digs
• Casady McKinney – 10 Assists, 7 Digs
• Ryley Bowden – 15 Digs, 3 Assists

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • Columbia International started off strong by scoring five of the first seven points before Mid-America Christian stormed back by scoring four of the next five as Annabeth Fehrle's net-tricking kill from the right side to the left corner tied the set up at 6-6.
  • The side-out kill from Kira Rymer Attaway allowed the Rams to string together a commanding 15-4 run as a Hannah Weiss termination gave CIU its largest advantage of the frame at 21-10.
  • MACU finally found a little bit of a rhythm late by scoring four of the next six, featuring a pair of kills from Alica Obusekova, a Ryley Bowden ace and a Fehrle finish to cut it to 23-14, but Columbia International recorded back-to-back kills to wrap-up the 25-14 win in the set.
• Set Two
  • The Evangels started out the set well by scoring three of the first four as a kill apiece from Miriam Nardi and Obusekova to go with a CIU attack error gave MACU the 3-1 advantage.
  • The Rams put together a 5-1 run to take a brief lead, but MACU managed to tie it up at 6-6 following a termination and a service ace from Obusekova.
  • Columbia International once again put together an overpowering 13-4 run to capture a commanding 19-10 lead late in the set.
  • Mid-America Christian didn't go down without a fight as the Evangels strung together an 8-3 surge behind five kills and three Rams attack errors to close the gap to 22-18, but MACU committed three miscues over the final four rallies to allow the Rams to claim the 25-19 win.
• Set Three
  • MACU saw a similar start to the third set by opening with a 3-1 run by taking advantage of a pair of Rams hitting miscues to go with a Casady McKinney service ace.
  • Columbia International found its stride following the fifth rally kill by Katie Camp as the Rams strung together a 10-2 run to grab an 11-5 advantage, prompting head coach Holly McKamie to call a timeout.
  • Following the timeout, Obusekova tallied a side-out kill to get serve back to MACU's side, but it did little to stop CIU as the Rams countered with six unanswered scores to stretch its lead to double-digits at 17-6.
  • Mid-America Christian was unable to string together a comeback as Columbia International scored the final five points to secure the 25-11 win.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian struggled against Columbia International's blocking scheme as the Evangels registered just 26 kills and committed 27 attack errors due in-large part to 11 Rams blocks for a season-low -.007 hitting percentage, marking the first and only time MACU hit in the negatives this season.
• On the defensive side, the Evangels struggled to slow down the CIU attack as the Rams finished with 36 kills on a .232 hitting clip.
• Alica Obusekova led the MACU attack as she just barely missed a double-double with eight kills to go with 10 digs.
• Madison Lee paced the Evangels setting efforts with 11 assists to go with five digs while Casady McKinney notched 10 assists and seven shovels.
• Ryley Bowden led the back-row efforts with a team-high 15 digs to go with three assists.
• By suffering the loss, MACU fell to 0-3 all-time against Columbia International with all three defeats coming at the NCCAA National Championships.
• The Evangels wrap-up the 2024 season with a 21-14 overall record, marking the fourth-straight year MACU notched 20 or more wins in a season under fifth-year head coach Holly McKamie.
• It was the final match for six MACU seniors: Lena Stockhammer, Sarah Jones-Stafford, Miriam Nardi, Annabeth Fehrle, Lauryn Walters and Ryley Bowden.
• Stockhammer wraps up her legendary four-year MACU career with multiple spots in the program's NAIA Era (2007-present) record book as he ends her tenure with the second-most kills (1139), second-most attacks (3382) and fourth-most assists (1946) while playing in the second-most sets (522).
• Nardi was another senior that closes out her three-year MACU career as one of the top attackers in the NAIA Era. The right side from Verona, Italy notched the fourth-most kills (839), seventh-best kills per set (2.39) and hit for the seventh-best hitting percentage at .233.
• Stafford wrapped up her MACU tenure as one of the best middles in the NAIA Era as her 250 career blocks ranks as the second-most in the career record book on the sixth-best per set average (0.71) and also hit for the 10^th-best attack percentage at .219.
• Bowden also cemented her spot in MACU's NAIA Era record book as she finishes her three-year stint with the ninth-best digs per set average (2.66) as well as the 10^th-most service aces (97).
• Another three-year Evangel, Fehrle ended her MACU tenure with 553 career kills, averaging 1.73 terminations per set on a .165 hitting percentage and also posted 104 blocks on a 0.33 per set clip.
• Walters also ends her three years with MACU by tallying 400 kills on a 1.30 kill-per-set average while hitting for a .151 rate to go with 83 blocks.
• As a team, the Evangels closed out the year with one of its best defense seasons in program history as MACU recorded the second-most digs per set (18.1) in the NAIA Era on the third-lowest opponent hitting percentage (.139).
• In the attack, MACU also posted one of its best seasons as its .188 hitting percentage ranks as the third-highest in the NAIA Era while also tallying the third-most service aces (152) on the third-best per set average (2.0).