ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Lewis Flyer men's volleyball team picked up a sweep over Benedictine on Saturday evening for its third straight win. Lewis (3-3) was led offensively by
Dalen Instenes (Racine, WI/William Horlick) with a match-high 20 kills while
Jake Walenga (Frankfort, IL/Lincoln Way North) added eight kills and
Kyle Bugee (Los Altos, CA/Homestead) finished the match with seven kills.
The Flyers hit .383 (23 kills, five errors, 47 total attacks) in the opening set but were unable to put the Eagles (3-1) away due to eight service errors. The frame was tied at 8-8 when Lewis went on a 6-1 run to build the largest lead of the set at 14-9.
Benedictine fought back to take a couple of one point leads late in the stanza but were unable to extend its lead. The Flyers trailed 23-22 but back-to-back kills from Instenes set up Lewis for the first of its seven set points. The Eagles fought off six of those set points and had one of their own leading 28-27 after a kill by Adriel Rivas.
Benedictine appeared to have the set won but was called for a back row attack which tied the set at 28-28. The two sides swapped the next four points before
Jake Walenga (Frankfort, IL/Lincoln Way North) gave the Flyers the lead at 31-30 and then
Danny Maurer (Oviedo, FL/Hagerty) stuffed Zack Loeding at the net to give Lewis the opener 32-30.
The Flyers raced out to an early lead in the middle set and scored eight of the first 10 points. The Eagles cut the deficit to four on a couple of occasions but were unable to get any closer as Lewis hit .476 in the frame and took it 25-12.
The Flyers grabbed a five point lead early in set three only to see Benedictine come back to take a 14-11 lead on a kill from Nick Malak. Lewis responded with an 8-2 run to regain the lead and wouldn't relinquish it. The Eagles got as close as 21-19 but the Flyers scored six of the final eight points to secure the win 25-21.
Lewis finished the match with an attack percentage of .378 (48 kills/11 errors/98 total attacks) while holding Benedictine to a .163 hitting percentage. The Flyers also recorded 11.5 total blocks and were led by Maurer and Instenes with five total blocks each.
Rivas led the Eagles with 12 kills while Malak had 11 kills and 11 digs in the match.
Lewis continues its nine-match homestand this coming Thursday, January 25, against Cal State Northridge at 7 p.m.
