Mid-America Christian University

OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU Volleyball team picked up its biggest win of the season inside Abe Lemons Arena on Saturday afternoon as the Evangels survived the Stars rally to hold on for a 3-2 road victory over Oklahoma City.
 
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, Oklahoma City 2 (25-19, 13-25, 25-22, 16-25, 15-7)
  • Mid-America Christian (9-7, 5-5 SAC)
  • Oklahoma City (14-4, 8-4 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Seyi Atolagbe – 14 Kills, .345 ATK%, 3 Blocks
• Marcela Nalin – 11 Kills, 3 Blocks
• Mia Benson – 8 Kills, .316 ATK%, 2 Aces
• Jasmine Liongco – 26 Assists, 12 Digs, 3 Aces
• Gracelyn Skaggs – 27 Digs, 4 Assists

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • After Mid-America Christian tied the match up at 2-2 on Seyi Atolagbe's kill off the defender, Oklahoma City rattled off a 5-1 run that forced Head Coach Holly McKamie to call a timeout with the Evangels trailing 7-3.
  • Out of the timeout, the Evangels rattled off three in a row with Madi Trayler scoring a kill to close the gap to 8-7, however, the Stars answered right back with a dominant 6-1 surge to stretch their lead to 14-8 just before the technical timeout on Joeci Hunt's service ace.
  • Following four-straight side-out points, the Evangels strung together a dominant 9-0 run, getting a pair of kills each from Benson and Trayler to go along with five OCU attack errors to give MACU the 19-16 advantage.
  • After six-straight side-out points, the Evangels finished out the set by scoring four-straight points with a Morgan Cross kill and back-to-back Atolagbe terminations before Jasmine Liongco scored the set point ace to wrap-up the 25-19 win.
• Set Two
  • Mid-America Christian opened set two by scoring the first two points on kills from Atolagbe and Nalin, but the Stars battled back by rattling off a 7-1 run to grab a four-point lead until Nalin got a side-out termination to end it at 7-3.
  • While MACU briefly closed the gap to two, the Stars scored five-straight points to start hold a commanding 12-5 lead midway through the set.
  • Despite getting a side-out kill from Nalin to briefly stop the bleeding, the Stars stayed hot heading into the technical timeout as Oklahoma City went on an 8-3 surge as Erin Mack and Amber Jones teamed up on Atolagbe's attack to stretch the lead to 20-9.
  • The Evangels scored four of the next six to trim away at the OCU lead with Bailey White scoring a kill to cut the deficit to nine, but the Stars answered back by scoring the final three points to even the match up with the 25-13 win.
• Set Three
  • Even through the first six rallies, Oklahoma City seized advantage by scoring four in a row off three MACU attack errors as part of a 7-2 run to double-up the lead at 10-5 on an Edwards termination.
  • Mid-America Christian battled back by scoring four in a row to close it to 10-9 and force the Stars to take their first timeout.
  • Following four-consecutive side-out points, the Evangels took a brief 13-12 lead following three-straight OCU attack errors, but the Stars seized the 15-14 at the technical timeout after back-to-back MACU hitting miscues.
  • MACU briefly took an 18-17 lead after stringing together a 3-1 run before OCU captured a late three-point advantage after winning four consecutive rallies to make it 21-18.
  • The Evangels battled back behind four in a row of their own featuring a Cross kill, a Liongco service ace and Atolagbe tallying a kill and a block to make it a 22-21 MACU edge to force the Stars to call a timeout.
  • While the break forced the Evangels into a service error, the Evangels finished it out by scoring the final three points, getting kills from Nalin and Atolagbe before White teamed up with Atolagbe on Edwards' swing for the set-point block for the 25-22 win.
• Set Four
  • Oklahoma City got off to a dominant start to set four, scoring three consecutive points from the service line to hold a commanding 13-3 lead midway through the set.
  • Before the technical timeout, the Evangels started to battle back behind a 6-1 surge with Trayler tallying a pair of kills before Edwards tooled a kill off the block to make it 15-9 at the tech.
  • The Evangels continued to battle back out of the technical, scoring four in a row as Atolagbe tooled a kill of the block to close it to 15-13, but the Stars scored three in a row to stretch the lead back to 18-13, forcing the Evangels to call a timeout.
  • After trading the next six points, the Stars took advantage of three consecutive MACU attack errors following Rylie Steward's setter dump kill to once again even the match up with the 25-16 set win.
• Set Five
  • While the Evangels conceded the first point, MACU answered back by stringing together four in a row on back-to-back terminations from Nalin and Atolagbe and an OCU attack error before White's roll shot went cross-court to the right sideline, giving MACU the 4-1 advantage and forcing OCU to call a timeout.
  • Fortunes did not change sides following the break as OCU as the serve of Kaetlen Schier continued to cause problems as she scored a pair of aces to go with five OCU hitting miscues before Atolagbe's kill made it 12-1, causing the Stars to call their final timeout.
  • The Stars finally snapped the skid, scoring back-to-back kills from Bailey Lowder before a MACU attack error made it 12-4, forcing the Evangels to take their first timeout.
  • Oklahoma City continued to build momentum out of the Evangels timeout, scoring three of the next four to close the gap to 13-7 to cause Coach McKamie to exhaust her final timeout.
  • The Evangels responded well out of the timeout as Benson powered down kills on back-to-back rallies to give MACU the 15-7 victory.

MATCH NOTES

• Both teams struggled in the attack as Mid-America Christian recorded 51 kills with 29 errors for a .129 hitting percentage while Oklahoma City tallied 50 kills with 27 miscues for a .145 clip.
• Seyi Atolagbe came up huge for the Evangels, leading the attack with a team-high 14 kills on a .345 hitting percentage and notched three block assists for 15.5 points.
• Marcela Nalin also notched double-digit kills with 11 on the match to go along with a pair of solo blocks and a block assist for 13.5 points.
• Mia Benson was clutch late for the Evangels, ending her match with eight kills on a .316 attack rate and scored a pair of aces to go with a block assist for 10.5 points in the match.
• Jasmine Liongco led the distribution efforts in MACU's 6-2 setter rotation, tallying 26 assists and notched 12 digs for a double-double to go along with three service aces.
• Gracelyn Skaggs led MACU's back row efforts with 27 digs to go with four assists.
• With the victory, MACU avenged a five-set loss that it suffered to the Stars in the SAC Quarterfinal last season.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will wrap-up the first half of Sooner Athletic Conference play on Tuesday as it will host Science & Arts for a crucial matchup inside the Gaulke Activity Center. The match is slated for a 6 p.m. first serve.