Mid-America Christian University

SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. – After suffering a five-set loss at College of the Ozarks where the Bobcats took the last two sets from the Evangels, the MACU Volleyball team reversed those fortunes inside Bill George Arena on Saturday, rallying from a 2-1 deficit to take down John Brown in a five-set thriller.
 
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, John Brown 2 (21-25, 25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 15-11)
  • Mid-America Christian (15-11, 10-9 SAC)
  • John Brown (15-13, 11-9 SAC)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Seyi Atolagbe – 15 Kills, .294 ATK%, 3 Blocks
• Marcela Nalin – 14 Kills, .234 ATK%, 4 Digs
• Jasmine Liongco – 31 Assists, 12 Digs
• Kristen Straughn – 19 Assists, 9 Digs, 4 Aces
• Gracelyn Skaggs – 38 Digs, 6 Assists
• Kaetlen Schier – 25 Digs

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • John Brown seized the early momentum, scoring the first three points before utilized another string of three-straight to stretch the advantage to 11-5 midway through the set.
  • With the Golden Eagles holding a five-point edge just past the midway point, back-to-back Seyi Atolagbe terminations jumpstarted a 9-3 Evangels streak as Katie Stafford scored a kill to give MACU its first lead of the match at 17-16.
  • Both sides went two-for-two with each other over the next eight rallies, but with JBU trailing 21-20, the Golden Eagles closed out with a five-unanswered run as Emily Whitten's ace wrapped up the 25-21 win for the home team.
• Set Two
  • Both teams were dead even through the first 14 rallies before Marcela Nalin scored a side-out kill to ignite a 5-0 MACU streak with Kaetlen Schier making it a 12-7 Evangels' edge midway through.
  • After back-to-back side-outs, a block by Olivia Tucker and Akayla Kador on Mia Benson's swing started a six-unanswered JBU run behind four Paige Addington service aces to give the Golden Eagles the 14-13 lead.
  • The Evangels immediately got the lead back after Addington's service error tied it back up, scoring four more behind the serve of Kristen Straughn as Bailey White and Stafford scored kills during the run before Straughn's ace made it an 18-14 game.
  • John Brown slowly chiseled away at the MACU edge over the remainder of the set. After Nalin's kill brought it to set point, the Golden Eagles nearly completed the comeback when Tucker's termination and a Stafford attack error closed it to 24-23. However, White came up with MACU's clutch set point kill to wrap-up a hard-fought 25-23 win to even the match back up.
• Set Three
  • While MACU took advantage of three JBU attack errors to hold an early three-point lead, the Golden Eagles were advantageous off a MACU service error, scoring eight of the next 10 to seize the 9-6 advantage.
  • A block error on White's right-side swing allowed the Evangels to swing back out in-front behind four-straight before the Golden Eagles eclipsed MACU with four in a row to make it 13-10 on another block by Kador and Federica Ferrari.
  • John Brown stretched their lead out to as much as five at 18-13 on another Addington ace, but the Evangels refused to go down without a fight, scoring six of the next seven featuring a pair of Mia Benson kills, a Nalin side-out kill, and a pair of Straughn aces tied it up at 19-all.
  • The Golden Eagles once again went on a run to put the Evangels backs against the wall at 23-20 before Ava Stewart's side-out termination and co-op block with Atolagbe allowed MACU to tie it back up at 23-all on JBU's setting error. However, John Brown once again finished strong by taking advantage of Stafford's missed swing as Tessa Medina scored the set point service ace to give the Golden Eagles their own 25-23 win and put MACU down 2-1 in the match.
• Set Four
  • It was a back-and-forth tug-of-war between both teams, but midway through, John Brown seized a slight edge as a Clara Hyke kill and Atolagbe attack error made it 12-10.
  • Nalin's side-out kill allowed MACU to take back the momentum heading into the media timeout as the Evangels took the next five rallies with Gracelyn Skaggs scoring an ace to make it a 15-12 MACU edge.
  • JBU hung with MACU over the next eight rallies. Even though the Evangels scored three-straight to seize a five-point lead, kills by Carlson and Ferrari allowed the Golden Eagles to once again close it to 19-16.
  • Following Mia Bowman's service error, the Evangels put their foot and the gas and didn't look back, closing out the set with a 6-1 surge as Morgan Cross put down the set point kill to give MACU the dominant 25-17 win and force a fifth set.
• Set Five
  • Mid-America Christian opened the finale on a strong note, scoring four kills in the first five rallies with Benson bashing a pair to go with one apiece from Atolagbe and Nalin before the Golden Eagles swung back with four of the next five to close it to 5-4.
  • The Evangels briefly regained the momentum, hammering kills from Benson, Stafford, and Cross to grab back a three-point edge before JBU scored two of the next three points from the service line to tie it at 8-8 on Mallory Jury's ace.
  • MACU once again found a resounding response, as Atolagbe powered down a pair of crucial kills bookended by two JBU attack errors to make it a 12-8 Evangels advantage.
  • Even though the Golden Eagles scored three of the next four by taking advantage of two MACU hitting miscues, Atolagbe's side-out kill brought it to match point before Benson came up big by scoring the winning kill to wrap-up the 15-11 final.

MATCH NOTES

• While Mid-America Christian struggled in the attack against John Brown's strong defense, scoring 67 kills with 28 errors on a .176 hitting percentage, the Evangels were even better on the defensive end, limiting JBU to only 50 kills with 20 errors for a .146 attack rate.
• Even though MACU wasn't able to hit at the highest efficiency, the 67 kills were a season-high for the Evangels and was tied for the fifth-most in a match in the NAIA Era (2007-present) while the 221 attempts are also the fifth-highest in the same time frame.
• Defensively, the Evangels ended up in the record book as well, as the 122 digs as a team was the fourth-most in a single match as well as the highest tally since Oct. 21, 2017 in a match at Oklahoma Panhandle State.
• Leading the MACU attack was sophomore middle blocker Seyi Atolagbe, finishing with match-high 15 kills on a .294 attack percentage while adding three blocks while Marcela Nalin added 14 kills on a solid .234 rate with four digs.
• Sophomore setter Jasmine Liongco finished with a double-double, tallying 31 assists with 12 digs while Kristen Straughn tallied 19 dimes and nine digs while leading the team with four of the squad's eight aces.
• Junior libero Gracelyn Skaggs firmly placed herself in MACU's record book with her efforts in the back row, shoveling 38 digs to tie Shelbi Johnson for the second-most in a single match and with her performance, Skaggs became the 10^th Evangel to eclipse 500 digs in a season in the NAIA Era.
• Kaetlen Schier also came up big in the back row for MACU, tallying a career-best 25 digs in the win.
• With the win, MACU split the regular season series against John Brown and it was only the fourth time since 2007 that the Evangels came away with a win in Siloam Springs.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will close out its four-match road stand with its final regular season match away from the Gaulke on Tuesday as the Evangels prepare to travel down to Chickasha, Okla. to take on Science & Arts for a 6 p.m. first serve.