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IRVINE, Calif. – No. 9 Lewis men's volleyball out-hit No. 8 UC Irvine .430 to .265 on Monday (Jan. 5) evening to sweep the four-time national champion Anteaters 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 in the season opener for both squads. The win is the first ever for Lewis over UC Irvine.
 
Senior Greg Petty (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) led the Lewis offense with 18 kills, tying a career high for a three-set match. Fellow senior outside hitter Geoff Powell (Claremont, Calif./Claremont) finished with eight kills. Lewis out-blocked the Anteaters 8-4 with junior setter Scott Fifer (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) notching six and sophomore Jacob Schmiegelt (Lombard, Ill./Willowbrook) recording five.

After falling in the first two sets, UC Irvine seemed to come alive in the third. The Anteaters took an 8-5 lead following a kill by Dillon Hoffman. Lewis tied it at 12 on an attack error by Hoffman, but fell behind by two points again. It wasn't until late in the set when the game turned for the Flyers. Trailing 20-19, Petty notched a kill to knot the score. A block by Schmiegelt and Fifer gave Lewis the lead at 21-20. UC Irvine asked for time only to commit a hitting error on the next play. On the following point, senior libero Lucas Yanez (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs) chased down a ball at the service line. With his back to the net, Yanez sent an over the head bump set back towards the net. The play perfectly set up Powell to beat a triple block and make the score 23-20. It forced another UC Irvine timeout. Irvine followed with a kill and then Powell delivered a kill to make the score 24-21. UC Irvine rejected two match points but Lewis won it on the third on a triple block by Powell, junior Bobby Walsh (Chicago, Ill./Mount Carmel) and Fifer.
 
Lewis opened the match with a three-point win in set one. The Flyers jumped ahead 12-7 only to see UC Irvine knot it up at 18. Lewis asked for time and responded on a 5-1 run to take the opening frame.

Set two changed on a 9-4 Lewis run midway through the set. Powell eventually ended the set on a kill for point 25.

"One of our focuses from last year is first ball control and the guys did a nice job from the serve/receive line," Lewis head coach Dan Friend said. "Another focus is closing out close games and in all three sets we had guys step up and close them out."
 
Lewis sided out at 72, 77 and 73 percent, respectively, in each set. Meanwhile UC Irvine sided out at 63, 66 and 68 percent, respectively.
 
Fifer finished with 30 assists.

"Scott did a great job," Friend said. "He found the hot hand in Greg and established the middle for us. We talk about being over the 13 kills per game threshold and with 43 kills in the match we did that."

UC Irvine falls to 0-1 while Lewis is now 1-0. The Flyers head up the coast to Palo Alto and continue their season on Friday (Jan. 9) at Stanford in a 9 p.m. CT start against the 10th ranked Cardinal.