Mid-America Christian University will be honoring the 2001 NCCAA Division II Volleyball National Championship team prior to the start of the MACU volleyball team's match against Central Christian inside the Gaulke Activity Center on Saturday.
Then Mid-America Bible College, the Evangels became the first and are currently the only four-year collegiate institution (NCAA, NAIA or NCCAA) in the state of Oklahoma to win a volleyball national championship in their respective association.
"I always love to hear the stories of our past champions," said MACU Athletic Director Marcus Moeller. "We are incredibly proud to still be the only four-year university in the state of Oklahoma to have won a collegiate national championship. It is clear that this group of players and coaches were not only talented, but incredibly close-knit. We're so looking forward to honoring their remarkable achievement."
Overall, MACU finished with a program-record 37 wins after closing out the year with a 37-3 overall record.
During that 2001 championship run, MACU picked up a trio of pool play sweeps on the opening day of the tourney against Faith Baptist Bible College (Iowa), Johnson Bible College (Tenn.) and Simpson College (Iowa).
On the following day of the tourney, the Evangels wrapped up pool play with another sweep over Baptist Bible (Pa.) before entering the quarterfinal round. In quarters play, MACU continued to dominate the competition, topping North Central College (Ill.) in a three-set sweep before cruising to a hard-fought three-set win over Lincoln Christian College (Ill.) in the semifinal.
In the national championship match, the Evangels faced their toughest challenge yet as MACU took on NCCAA national powerhouse Clearwater Christian College (Fla.), a program that had won four NCCAA Division II National Championships heading into that match and have won 13 national titles from 1988 to 2013.
The first three sets of the title tilt were tightly contested. MACU won set one 30-28 before Clearwater tallied an extra-point 31-29 victory in set two. However, the Evangels won the decisive third set by another 30-28 score to claim the 2-1 advantage. Clearwater Christian battled back to win set four 30-24, but the Evangels found their stride once again in the fifth set as MACU grinded out the 15-11 victory to claim the program's first national championship.
At the conclusion of the tournament, the Evangels received several distinguished honors as Sarah Naylor was named the NCCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, head coach Jeff Boyland was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Coach and Shelly Massey was also named to the All-Tournament Team.
The Evangels were also well represented in the postseason awards as MACU had three players named NCCAA First Team All-Americans in Massey, Naylor and Jill Blankenship while Nikki Floyd earned Second Team All-America honors.
The players and coaching staffs will be recognized immediately at 1 p.m. prior to the start of the match.
2001 NCCAA National Championship Team
Sarah Naylor-Alexandar
Nikki (Floyd) Dieball
Sam Lindsey
Shelly (Massey) Tucker
Kristen Campbell
Jill Blankenship
Lindsey Hardisty
Heather Walker-O'Neal
Jamie Rutledge Hannon
Jessica Ivie
Jeff Boyland – Head Coach
Charlett Overturf – Assistant Coach
Abby Larzelere – Manager
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