No. 13 Women's Volleyball Wins 18th Straight With Sweep Of Ferris State

Oct. 17, 2009

LANSING, Mich. - No. 13 Lewis capped the GLVC/GLIAC Crossover in grand style with a sweep of Ferris State (25-18, 25-21, 31-29) on Saturday afternoon. The win is Lewis' 18th consecutive victory, matching the longest streak in school history set by last year's squad.

Senior Stephanie Sagat (Darien, Ill./Hinsdale South) was one of 12 players selected to the all-tournament team. She recorded 11 kills against the Bulldogs to bring her career total to 1,554, just six shy of setting a new Lewis record. The current mark is held by Katie Gilman (2000-03) at 1,559.

Sagat will get the chance to break the mark on Friday when Lewis hosts Southern Indiana at 7 p.m. The match will be aired live on Lakeshore Public Television.

Senior Sara deBuhr (Urbandale, Iowa/Urbandale) led Lewis with 13 kills while hitting .417. Senior Ashlee Lindish (Chicago, Ill./Mother McAuley) and junior Lauren Seliga (St. Louis, Mo./Nerinx) each had 11 digs.

Sophomore Hannah Koeneman (New Haven, Ind./Woodlan) recorded eight kills and hit .462 in action off the bench.

Lewis used 5-0 runs in both the first and second sets to give themselves distance to pull away. The Flyers held what appeared to be a comfortable 23-19 lead in the third set when the Bulldogs rallied to tie it at 24. A deBuhr kill gave the Flyers match point but a pair of Bulldog points gave Ferris set point. The Flyers turned away three Ferris State set points until kills by junior Rachel Ruedi (Mahomet, Ill./Mahomet Seymour) and deBuhr swung the pendulum back towards the Flyers. The Bulldogs spurned another Lewis match point until a pair of Sagat kills ended the contest.

Ruedi finished with 37 assists and eight kills with no errors.

Lewis defended their No. 1 ranking in the region with three victories at the crossover.

"The team gets up for great competition and this tournament had it," head coach Lorelee Smith said. "If things started to not go our way these two days we were able to regroup and get back on track."

Lewis improves to 21-3. Ferris State falls to 17-7.

A Catholic university sponsored by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, Lewis offers nearly 80 undergraduate majors and programs of study, accelerated degree completion options for working adults, various aviation programs and 22 graduate programs in nine fields. The 10th largest private, not-for-profit university in Illinois is being honored for the sixth consecutive year by The Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report. For more information please visit www.lewisu.edu. ##LEWIS##

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