OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU Volleyball team opened its 2025 campaign on a high note inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Tuesday night as the Evangels swept Tabor by a score of 3-0.
 
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, Tabor 0 (25-10, 25-21, 30-28)
  • Mid-America Christian (1-0)
  • Tabor (0-1)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Marcela Nalin – 10 Kills, .350 ATK%, 3 Blocks
• Seyi Atolagbe – 7 Kills, .538 ATK%, 3 Blocks
• Madison Lee – 20 Assists, 5 Digs
• Casady McKinney – 13 Assists, 6 Digs, 2 Aces
• Kaetlen Schier – 11 Digs
• Ryley Bowden – 10 Digs, 5 Assists

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • Mid-America Christian went into cruise control right out of the gate, scoring the first four points before continuing to stretch its edge midway through as three Marcela Nalin kills during a 5-0 run stretched the advantage to 12-3.
  • A block and an ace by Tabor's Breona Smith briefly stopped the run, but Nalin's sideout termination jumpstarted an 8-1 Evangels counter to expand the edge to 20-6.
  • After Tabor scored three of the next five, the Evangels wrapped up the set with a run of their own, notching four of the next five as Alica Obusekova's kill off a TC net violation wrapped up the 25-10 win.
• Set Two
  • The Evangels once again opened with a hot start in the second set, scoring the first five points, featuring a pair of Casady McKinney service aces before eventually stretching the lead to 13-4 midway through on an assisted block by Nalin and Natalia Gonzalez.
  • A Karlee Siegfried kill following a Nalin and Seyi Atolagbe co-op block gave MACU its largest lead at 16-6 before the Bluejays rattled off an incredible 13-3 surge to tie the set up at 19-all on a Breona Smith kill.
  • The two squads swapped the next four rallies before the Evangels took advantage of a pair of Tabor attack errors before Karlee Siegfried tallied back-to-back kills to wrap-up the 25-21 victory.
• Set Three
  • Despite giving up two of the first three, Mid-America Christian quickly found its stride by stringing together an 8-1 surge capped off on three consecutive Bluejay attack errors to make it 9-3.
  • Tabor found its stride midway through the set by scoring on nine of the next 11 rallies to seize a 12-11 edge.
  • Even though MACU managed to capture a brief 16-14 lead off of a kill apiece from Atolagbe and Madi Trayler to go with a Sydney Martin service ace, Tabor bounced back with a 7-2 surge to grab its largest lead of the match at 21-18, forcing MACU head coach Holly McKamie to call a timeout.
  • Out of the timeout, the Evangels scored on eight of the next 12 rallies, which included surviving a pair of Tabor set points to bring it to match point at 26-25 on Obusekova's kill.
  • Tabor scored three of the next four to bring it to the Bluejays set point for the third time, but the Evangels finished the match strong with McKinney getting a game-tying setter dump kill before forcing the Bluejays into back-to-back attack errors to wrap up the 30-28 final.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian finished the contest with 40 kills and 15 attack errors for a .231 attack percentage while Tabor notched 33 kills and 26 hitting miscues for a .060 hitting rate.
• MACU's blocking scheme frustrated the Bluejays as the Evangels tallied six team blocks in the three-set affair while TC only tallied a pair of rejections.
• In her Evangels debut, Marcela Nalin led the MACU attack with a match-high 10 kills on a highly efficient .350 hitting percentage while also recording three blocks at the net.
• Freshman middle blocker Seyi Atolagbe also wowed the crowd in her MACU debut as she recorded seven terminations on a blistering .538 hitting clip to go with three assisted blocks as well.
• The Evangels as a whole featured a balanced attack with four players finishing with at least seven kills as Alica Obusekova and Karlee Siegfried also closed out with seven terminations apiece.
• Madison Lee led MACU's distribution efforts with 20 assists while the reigning SAC Setter of the Year Casady McKinney dished out 13 to go with a team-high two aces and six digs.
• Kaetlen Schier put up a strong back row effort with a match-high 11 digs while Ryley Bowden chipped in 10 shovels and five assists in the passing game.
• With the win, the Evangels have now won three-straight matches against Tabor dating back to 2021 while the result marked the program's first three-set sweep over the Bluejays.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will now prepare for a short turnaround in its first road trip of the 2025 season as the Evangels head to Fulton, Mo. on Thursday for a 5 p.m. match against Friends and a 7 p.m. contest against William Woods in the WWU Invitational inside the Anderson Arena.