OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU Volleyball team saw its eight-match win streak come to a tough end inside Abe Lemons Arena on Saturday afternoon as Oklahoma City battled back from a set down in its Homecoming match to defeat MACU 3-1 in the regular season finale.
 
SCORE

• Oklahoma City 3, Mid-America Christian 1 (14-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-20)
  • Mid-America Christian (18-11, 14-8 SAC)
  • Oklahoma City (16-12, 13-9 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Madi Trayler – 15 Kills, .333 ATK%
• Alica Obusekova – 7 Kills, .273 ATK%, 9 Digs, 2 Aces, 2 Blocks
• Casady McKinney – 17 Assists, 9 Digs, 6 Kills, 2 Blocks
• Madison Lee – 13 Digs, 11 Assists
• Ryley Bowden – 14 Digs, 9 Assists

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • Mid-America Christian started out hot right out of the gate, stringing together a four-unanswered and a pair of three-point runs to capture a 13-6 lead midway through on a Madi Trayler termination and back-to-back OCU attack errors.
  • After seven-straight side-out points, MACU extended its lead by scoring three of the next four on a kill apiece from Seyi Atolagbe and Mia Benson to go with an OCU attack error to make it 19-11.
  • Oklahoma City tried to battle back by scoring three in a row, but MACU quickly shut the door on the Stars by rattling off six-straight a kill each for Trayler and Alica Obusekova and two Sydney Martin service aces before Obusekova and Benson teamed up to block Maddie Edwards' attack on set point to wrap-up the 25-14 win.
• Set Two
  • It was even between the two side through the first seven rallies an Atolagbe kill briefly gave the Evangels a 4-3 lead before the Stars went on an incredible 12-1 run to seize a 15-5 advantage, forcing MACU head coach Holly McKamie to exhaust a timeout.
  • Despite the large deficit, the Evangels did some work to rally back out of the break, scoring six of the next seven as two Trayler terminations sandwiched an Obusekova kill to close the gap to 16-11.
  • While OCU responded with back-to-back kills from Grace Smallwood and Marina Kalajdzic, MACU swung back with four in a row to ignite an 8-2 run as Obusekova scored a kill and an ace before Marshall's hitting miscue closed it to 20-19 and force the Stars to exhaust a timeout.
  • Even though the Stars put MACU against the ropes by bringing it to set point at 24-20, three-straight OCU attack errors closed the gap to one. It looked as though the Evangels may have came up with the game-tying block on Marshall's attack, she managed to tool it off the block just enough for it to land out of bounds to allow the Stars to escape with the 25-23 win.
• Set Three
  • The third set saw a similar start with both teams being relatively even through the first 11 rallies with MACU briefly grabbing a 6-5 lead after consecutive OCU hitting miscues, but the Stars again grabbed the advantage going into the midway point by rattling off a 10-2 surge with Smallwood's kill making it a 15-8 game.
  • The Evangels took advantage of the service line to score four of the next five points with an OCU service error and an ace apiece from Mia Benson and Madison Lee closing it to a 16-12 contest.
  • Stars once again put MACU to the brink when Smallwood's termination brought it to set point at 24-18, but the Evangels refused to go away by scoring four in a row to close it to 24-22, forcing OCU to call a timeout.
  • Unfortunately, MACU couldn't continue the run out of the timeout as Smallwood notched the set point kill to seal the 25-22 result.
• Set Four
  • The Stars ability to put together a run to close out the first half of the set continued to stay true in the fourth as OCU rattled off an 8-1 surge capped off on a three-straight Marshall kills to make it a 14-6 Stars edge.
  • MACU taking three of the next four points did little stave off the Stars as OCU claimed four of the next five to take its largest lead of the contest at 19-10 following a MACU hitting miscue.
  • With the Stars maintaining a strong advantage over the next 10 rallies, Mid-America Christian made one more final push with a Benson bash and a pair of Trayler kills followed by a Smallwood attack error allowed the Evangels to close it to 23-20.
  • That was the closest MACU could close it as OCU scored the final two points to wrap-up the 25-20 win.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian struggled to score points against Oklahoma City's defense, finishing with 41 kills and 18 errors for a .164 hitting percentage while the Stars notched 52 kills, but with 27 miscues for a .168 rate.
• For the first time in her Evangels career, freshman opposite side hitter led the MACU attack with a career-high 15 kills on a strong .333 hitting percentage while Alica Obusekova finished with seven kills on a .273 rate, but MACU struggled to find the rest of their attack in the match.
• Coming off her triple-double performance last night, Casady McKinney led the distribution efforts with 17 assists and nine digs to go with six kills in the attack while Madison Lee posted a double-double with 13 digs and 11 assists.
• Ryley Bowden led MACU's back row efforts with 14 digs to go with nine assists while Seyi Atolagbe led the blocking efforts with four total on a pair of solo and two assisted.
• With the result, Mid-America Christian and Oklahoma City split the regular season series with both teams winning by three sets to one on each of their home courts.
• By the time the afternoon was done, despite suffering the loss, MACU still wrapped up the regular season with an 18-11 overall record while going 14-8 in SAC play to finish in a tie for third with Wayland Baptist in the league standings. On point totals, the Evangels claimed the tiebreaker for the No. 3 seed in the upcoming SAC Tournament.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will see an almost immediate rematch against Oklahoma City in the SAC Quarterfinal next week as the Stars will come to the Gaulke Activity Center for a 6 p.m. first serve.