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ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - No. 9 Lewis men's volleyball turned to the Petty brothers to earn a 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-19, 25-20) victory over No. 6 Penn State on Saturday (Jan. 21) evening at a sold out and raucous Neil Carey Arena.
Freshman
Greg Petty (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) led Lewis with a match-high 14 kills thanks to a .522 hitting percentage. Junior
Jay Petty (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) hit .370 with 13 kills.
Jay Petty (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) also added three aces.
“It was great to see the guys transfer some things from practice to the game especially in this type of match and this level of play,” head coach
Dan Friend said. “The outsides (Jay and
Greg Petty (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North)) did a really nice job and that was a big thing we were going to try to key in on and both of those guys hit for great numbers.”
Each brother had four kills in the first set.
Greg Petty (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) had a kill on Lewis' second set point of the frame.
After Penn State tied the match at one set each, Lewis came back strong by hitting .524 in the third set. Senior
Matt Gallik (Evergreen Park, Ill./Brother Rice) (Evergreen Park, Ill./Brother Rice) who had nine kills in the match, recorded five in the third set.
Lewis held a 14-11 advantage in the fourth set until Penn State tied it at 14. It would be the final time Penn State would tie the contest. A kill by
Jay Petty (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) and a Gallik's only solo block of the match made it 16-14. Gallk came up with a kill on match point to give the contest to Lewis and give Friend his first victory over Penn State.
Lewis out-hit the Nittany Lions .429 to .213. The Flyers also held a dominating 10 to 2.5 blocking advantage. Sophomore setter
BJ Boldog (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) recorded 38 assists while adding five block assists.
Penn State falls to 2-1 while Lewis improves to 4-2. The Flyers are off until Friday when they welcome St. Francis (Pa.) to Neil Carey Arena for a 7 p.m. start.