OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City volleyball finished up its regular season revenge tour with a 3-1 Homecoming win over Mid-America Christian on Saturday.
 
The Stars had lost road matches at John Brown, College of the Ozarks, Wayland Baptist, Oklahoma Panhandle State and MACU in the first half of the Sooner Athletic Conference season but OCU got the better of those teams in their return visit to Abe Lemons Arena.
 
That first-half struggle, however, was enough to cost the Stars a home first-round berth. There was an inkling of that trouble in the first set on Saturday but after the 25-14 loss, OCU responded in the next three sets, 25-23, 25-22, 25-20.
 
Kaylie Marshall led OCU with 18 kills, followed by Maddie Edwards with 12 and Grace Smallwood with 11. Natalie Adams had 42 assists. OCU came up with eight aces, led by Ryan Leland with three. Layla Olvera and Kate Cleofe had two apiece.
 
Defensively, the Stars got 21 digs out of Smallwood and 10 from Cleofe. Edwards got in on four blocks while Smallwood, Erin Mack and Marina Kalajdzic had two apiece.
 
After the first set loss, OCU used a 5-0 run with two aces from Olvera to build an 8-4 lead. After MACU briefly interrupted that string, the Stars rolled off seven consecutive points, including two aces by Leland.
 
MACU closed to within a point on two occasions, but Marshall ended the drama with a kill.
 
Edwards had three kills in a 5-0 OCU spree to give OCU some separation in the third set, 13-7. A four-point run by MACU saw the Evangels get to within 24-22, but Smallwood used a kill to give the Stars a 2-1 lead.
 
Marshall had three kills to fuel a 5-0 Stars run in the final set for a 14-6 lead. Another late rally by MACU came up short when Kalajdzic punctuated her career on the home floor with a block.
 
The Stars advance to the Sooner Athletic Conference, traveling to a first-round match on Tuesday.