GREENVILLE, S.C. – MACU Volleyball freshman middle blocker Seyi Atolagbe joined some elite company on Tuesday morning as she was named a National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) All-America Second Team selection, becoming only the fifth Evangel to earn the accolade since moving up the Division I level in 2007.
Atolagbe joined a group that was started by two-time All-American recipient Christiane Costa (2009, 10), but impressively is the fourth Evangel under sixth-year head coach Holly McKamie to garner the esteemed accolade following Hanna Foecker (2019, 20, 21), Maegan Plunk (2020), and Sawyer Franz (2023).
At the conclusion of the season, Atolagbe annihilated the program's single season hitting percentage record after racking up 286 kills on a .379 hitting percentage, besting the previous mark set by setter Hannah Luedtke in 2015 when she tallied 160 kills on a .325 attack rate. The previous best rate by a hitter came from middle blocker Vanessa Morera in 2022 when she wrapped up that campaign with 238 terminations on a .306 percentage.
On-top of leading the team in the attack, the Oklahoma City product also led the team's blocking efforts, finishing the campaign with 82 blocks on a 0.67 per set average, tallying the 10th most in a single season since 2007 while her 75 assisted blocks tied teammate Mia Benson for the eighth-most in a year.
While only reaching double-digit kills three times through the first 21 matches of the season, Atolagbe became a much more profound offensive target over the final third of the year, tallying 10 or more kills in eight of her final 13 matches.
Her best match of the season came in a three-set sweep at Southwestern Christian on Nov. 7 when she incredibly smashed 18 kills on a .696 hitting percentage while recording a career-high .733 hitting clip with 12 kills in a sweep over Central Christian inside the Gaulke on Oct. 18.
Atolagbe attained multiple awards in her first year at MACU as she was named an All-Sooner Athletic Conference First Team honoree as well as the league's Freshman of the Year. On-top of being tabbed to the NCCAA All-Central Region First Team, Atolagbe was also named an AVCA-NAIA First Team All-MidCentral Region performer while also being named the Region's Freshman of the Year.
