Lewis University Athletics

The 1981 women’s volleyball team won a school-record 51 matches, while earning one of 10 invites to the NCAA Division II Tournament in the first year it hosted under head coach and Lewis Hall of Famer Karen Lockyer. The team won the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Illinois State Championship and the AIAW Midwest Region Championship, while finishing sixth at the AIAW National Tournament. The team defeated Springfield (Mass.), the host school, University of California-Riverside and Florida Southern to advance to the program’s first-ever NCAA Division II Women’s Volleyball Championship and then finished runner-up after losing to Sacramento State in the final.