Mid-America Christian University

AUSTIN, Texas – The MACU Volleyball team struggled to keep up its attacking pace from Thursday as it split its pair of matches with a 3-1 win over Avila before falling 3-0 to Embry Riddle (Ariz.) in the Barnaby's Italian Ice Invitational hosted by Huston-Tillotson inside Branch Gymnasium on Friday.
 
MATCH ONE / Mid-America Christian vs. Avila
SCORE

• Mid-America Christian 3, Avila 1 (23-25, 25-14, 25-15, 25-20)
  • Mid-America Christian (3-0)
  • Avila (1-2)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Marcela Nalin – 15 Kills, .452 ATK%, 3 Digs, 3 Blocks
• Morgan Cross – 10 Kills, .214 ATK%, 7 Digs
• Kristen Straughn – 23 Assists, 7 Digs, 3 Aces
• Jasmine Liongco – 19 Assists, 7 Digs, 3 Kills
• Gracelyn Skaggs – 17 Digs, 5 Assists, 2 Aces

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • Mid-America Christian immediately found itself behind the eight-ball in set one as the Evangels struggled to get the attack going with Avila jumping out to a commanding 13-5 lead through the first half of the set.
  • MACU managed to close the gap to five at 14-9 by taking advantage of some Eagles attack errors, but Avila managed to build its largest lead out of a 4-0 run that made it a 19-10 contest.
  • The Evangels battled their way back, utilizing a pair of massive streaks of 6-1 and 6-0 with back-to-back Kaetlen Schier service aces evening the set up at 22-22.
  • AU's Emerson Sweep and Marcela Nalin traded blows over the next two rallies to tie it up at 23-all, but the Eagles finished it out with a Maddie Jones kill and a Sophia Giorgio service ace to hand MACU its first set defeat of the season at 25-23.
• Set Two              
  • Both sides were even through the first 10 rallies as a pair of lead changes led up to AU's Megan Davies getting a kill to even it up at 5-5.
  • Marcela Nalin's side-out kill on the ensuing rally fired up a huge Evangels run, winning 11 of the next 12 rallies with Mia Benson tallying three aces in a four-rally stretch to make the advantage 16-6.
  • MACU captured its largest lead of the set in the 28^th rally after a pair of terminations from Seyi Atolagbe and Morgan Cross sandwiched a Isabella Byrd setting error to make it 20-8.
  • The Eagles were unable to string a late run as the Evangels held on for the 25-14 set win.
• Set Three
  • The two teams were relatively even through the first 26 rallies. Even though MACU managed to tie it up on six occasions, a 3-1 Avila run with a pair of Davies kills allowed the Eagles to hold the 14-12 edge.
  • A setter dump kill by Jasmine Liongco on the ensuing rally completely turned the set on its head as the Evangels rattled off seven in a row behind the service of Kristen Straughn. The freshman setter tallied a pair of aces in the streak to grab the 19-14 advantage.
  • While Davies got a kill to end the run, Mid-America Christian responded right back by taking the next six rallies before Nalin nailed down the final kill to seal the 25-15 victory.
• Set Four
  • The Evangels grasped the early advantage through the first 13 rallies, utilizing a pair of 4-0 runs capped off on Straughn's service ace to secure a 9-4 lead.
  • While MACU was slowly able to build out its lead to 14-8 on a Madi Trayler termination, the Eagles clawed their way back behind an 11-4 surge that saw Avila take a late 19-18 lead on Maddie Jones' kill.
  • A side-out kill by Morgan Cross flipped the momentum back to MACU to close it out as the Evangels scored on seven of the final eight rallies before closing it out herself with a kill on match point to lock up the 25-20 win.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian was relatively solid in its attack, notching 58 kills with 17 errors for a .275 hitting percentage while frustrating the Avila attack, limiting the Eagles to just 35 kills with 17 errors for a .145 rate.
• It was a helter skelter sort of day from the service line for the Evangels as they manage to knock a season-high 14 service aces as a team, but also finished with a season-high 13 service errors as well. Meanwhile AU could only muster seven aces against MACU's defense, but also only committed six errors from the line.
• Despite being held in-check on day one of the Barnaby's Italian Ice Invitational with just two kills combined between the two matches, senior right side hitter Marcela Nalin came up huge for MACU, leading three players in double-digits with 15 kills on an astounding .452 hitting percentage to go with three blocks and three digs.
• Freshman outside hitter Morgan Cross turned in her first double-digit kill performance in her MACU career with 10 kills on a .214 clip to go with seven digs while Abby Conaway rounded it out with 10 terminations as well.
• Kristen Straughn led the distribution efforts with 23 assists to go with seven digs and three service aces while Jasmine Liongco finished with 19 dimes and seven digs to go with three setter dump kills on four attempts.
• Gracelyn Skaggs led the back row efforts with 17 digs while Seyi Atolagbe matched Nalin at the net with three block assists.
• With the win, the Evangels improved to 3-0 all-time against Avila, defeating the Eagles in each of the last three seasons.

MATCH TWO / Mid-America Christian vs. Embry-Riddle
SCORE

• Embry-Riddle 3, Mid-America Christian 0 (25-15, 25-21, 26-24)
  • Mid-America Christian (3-1)
  • Embry-Riddle (3-2)

TOP PERFORMERS

• Marcela Nalin – 6 Kills, .364 ATK%
• Abby Conaway – 8 Kills
• Jasmine Liongco – 15 Assists, 8 Digs
• Kristen Straughn – 12 Assists, 2 Digs
• Gracelyn Skaggs – 13 Digs

MATCH SUMMARY

• Set One
  • Despite scoring the first point on a Seyi Atolagbe kill, Mid-America Christian immediately found itself behind as Embry-Riddle rattled off an eight-unanswered streak to seize a commanding 8-1 advantage.
  • An Abby Conaway side-out kill jumpstarted the Evangels, scoring five in a row to close it to a two-point game at 8-6.
  • The Evangels managed to keep it to within striking distance through the midway point of the set, not allowing the Bulldogs lead to grow to more than five but unable to close the gap to less than two with the last coming on a Hannah Clear attack error to make it 14-12.
  • The Bulldogs pulled away over the second half, outscoring the Evangels 11-3 to secure a 25-15 opening set win.
• Set Two
  • The second set was a back-and-forth battle through the first 15 rallies, seeing five ties and three lead changes with MACU's last lead coming on a Marcela Nalin kill to make it 8-7.
  • The Eagles took back the advantage heading into the midway point by taking advantage of a 5-1 run to set the score to 12-9.
  • The Evangels eventually battled back to tie it at 13-all on an Abby Conaway and Atolagbe assisted block. After eight straight side-out scores, MACU finally recaptured an 18-17 edge on ERAU attack error.
  • While MACU managed to hold on to its lead until it was 21-19, MACU could do little to stop Embry-Riddle as the Eagles closed out with a six-unanswered streak to take set two, 25-21.
• Set Three
  • The Eagles continued to hold the momentum early in the third set, building out an 11-5 lead through the first 16 rallies.
  • Mid-America Christian battled back in a big way, scoring seven of the next eight points to draw the set even at 12-12 midway through.
  • Even though ERAU scored three of the next four to take back the advantage, the Evangels surged back in-front with four-unanswered featuring two Conaway kills and a termination apiece for Atolagbe and Mia Benson, setting the score to 17-15.
  • Once again, Embry-Riddle scored five in a row to grab back a 20-17 edge, MACU once again had an answered by scoring on five of the next six rallies to make it 22-21.
  • The Evangels did manage to bring it to set point at 24-23 on an Atolagbe kill of the ERAU net violation, but the Eagles once again closed out by scoring the final three points to complete the sweep at 26-24.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian struggled mightily in the attack, mustering only 32 kills and committed 23 attack errors to finish with a .083 hitting percentage. One of the few bright spots for MACU was its defense was also stout, holding the Bulldogs to only 34 kills and 22 hitting errors for just a .114 hitting clip.
• The service line played a massive role in the result as the Bulldogs scored eight aces to only one for the Evangels and by committing 10 service errors, ERAU held an 18-4 advantage in service scoring for the match.
• MACU's attack struggles came mostly due to the Eagles blocking scheme, finishing with nine rejections while the Evangels notched just four for the match.
• The lone bright spots for MACU in the attack were Marcela Nalin and Mia Benson, as Nalin turned in six kills on a .364 attack percentage while Benson's five terminations was on a .250 clip.
• Abby Conaway finished with a team-high eight kills for MACU in the match.
• Jasmine Liongco led the distribution efforts with 15 assists and narrowly missed a double-double with eight digs while Kristen Straughn turned in 12 assists.
• Gracelyn Skaggs led the back row efforts with 13 digs while Benson finished with three total blocks with a solo and two assisted at the net.
• It was the first ever meeting between the Evangels and Embry-Riddle.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will be back on the road on Wednesday, Aug. 26 as the Evangels will play a tri-match hosted by Tabor in Hillsboro, Kansas. The opening match against the host Bluejays will take place at 3 pm before battling Baker (Kan.) at 5 pm inside Tabor Gym.