HTML Box | PDF Box

CHICAGO – For a fifth straight season, Lewis men's volleyball is going to the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Championship. No. 12 Lewis topped No. 10 Loyola 3-1 (28-26, 25-20, 20-25, 25-16) on Wednesday (April 20) evening at Gentile Arena in the 2016 MIVA Semifinals.

Thanks to the victory, the Flyers will play at No. 2 in the nation Ohio State on Saturday (April 23) at 7 p.m. ET in the MIVA title game.  The Buckeyes are the No. 1 seed in the MIVA Tournament. Lewis entered Wednesday's contest as the No. 4 seed. Loyola was the No. 2 seed. The Flyers are the first No. 4 seed to advance to the MIVA Championship since 2006.

A big reason for Lewis' success on Wednesday was the Flyers' service pressure. Lewis had nine aces to Loyola's six. Lewis' serving helped the Flyers out-hit Loyola .333 to .262.

"Our floaters (servers) did a great job putting a ton of pressure on," Lewis head coach Dan Friend said of the Flyers' serving. "Then our guys capitalized on those opportunities."

After being down 20-18 in set one, Lewis rallied to earn set point at 24-23. Loyola denied three set points before the fourth was the charm for Lewis. Freshman Julian Moses (Atlanta, Ga./Atlanta International School) provided a solo block for the final point in a 28-26 opening set win. The frame had 16 ties and four lead changes.

Loyola was up 15-11 in the second set when Lewis came alive with five straight points. Point 16 was a kill by senior Will McCall (Fellsmere, Fla./Sebastian River) through the Loyola triple block. Lewis would never trail again in the set. All told, Lewis finished the set on a 14-5 run. Senior Jacob Schmiegelt (Lombard, Ill./Willowbrook) had a kill for point 25.

Loyola bounced back to win set three, out-hitting Lewis .379 to .103 in the frame. But the fourth was all Lewis. The Flyers never trailed and forced Loyola to take two timeouts by the time the Flyers went up 14-9. Lewis would go on to win to win by nine points.

"In game three we made some errors and let them back in it," Friend said. "In game four we cleaned up those errors."

Freshman Mitch Perinar (Channahon, Ill./Minooka) finished with 20 kills on a .366 hitting percentage.  After Perinar, five other Flyers notched at last five kills. Junior Trevor Weiskircher (Loves Park, Ill./Boylan Catholic) totaled four of his five in the fourth set. His final kill came on match point.

Senior Scott Fifer (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) dished out 47 assists while adding seven digs and four aces.

Loyola concludes their season at 20-8. Lewis improves to 19-12. A win on Saturday in the MIVA Championship would give Lewis the automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament.