Nov. 21, 2009

Box Score

INDIANAPOLIS - The Great Lakes Valley Conference earned their first Regional Championship since 1999, unfortunately it won't be the Lewis Flyers making the trip. The No. 2 seeded Flyers' record setting season ended with a 25-16, 25-21, 25-13 loss to No. 1 seed Indianapolis in the Midwest Regional Championship match on Saturday afternoon on the campus of the University of Indianapolis.

The Greyhounds controlled the opening set, and opened a five-point lead at 18-13. At first it appeared sophomore Colleen Mitros (Mokena, Ill./Providence) found the corner with a two handed attempt to make it 17-14, but the kill was overturned in favor of a double-hit call on Mitros to put the Flyers down five. Indianapolis cruised from there for the opening frame win.

Lewis trailed 6-3 in the first set only to rally back and take a two-point lead. However the Greyhounds made Lewis call the first timeout of the set by taking a 17-14 advantage. Lewis scored three straight to knot it up out of the break, however the Greyhounds followed with three points of their own to regain control of the set.

Lewis was again the first to ask for time in the third after the Greyhounds jumped out to a 13-8 advantage. By the time Lewis used their final timeout it was 20-10 in favor of the Greyhounds. The Flyers' bench and fans stayed loud to the final point, but in the end it was the Greyhounds coming out on top.

Seniors Kim Richards (Evergreen Park, Ill./Mother McAuley) and Sara deBuhr (Urbandale, Iowa/Urbandale) led Lewis with seven kills. Senior Stephanie Sagat (Darien, Ill./Hinsdale South) had 13 digs.

Lyndsay Callahan had a match-high 12 kills for Indianapolis.

"Give credit to Indy, they kept us on the defensive all match" head coach Lorelee Smith said. "As a team though, it was a successful season. We broke a lot of records and met all of our team goals. However you get this far, you want more and set new goals, we just came up short. But I'm very, very proud of the girls."

Lewis finishes the season 32-5, winning 30 matches for the third straight year, a first in Lewis Division II history. The Flyers set a school record by winning 27 straight and finished a perfect 14-0 in conference play. The 2009 Flyers are the eighth Lewis team since 2000 to advance to the final 16 in their respective sport.

With the loss, seniors Jessica Guest (Hudson, Ill./Normal West), LaKeita Jones (Chicago, Ill./Bloom Trail/Shawnee CC), Ashlee Lindish (Chicago, Ill./Mother McAuley), Richards, deBuhr and Sagat played their final match for Lewis. deBuhr finishes as Lewis' all-time blocks leader (404) and Sagat stands as Lewis' all-time kills leader (1,676).

##LEWIS##