ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The eighth ranked Lewis University men's volleyball team continues its nine match homestand on Friday against the 13
th ranked Trojans from Southern California. Lewis (5-3) goes for its sixth straight win while the Trojans look to snap a five-match losing streak.
Friday night's match will be the White Out match with everyone encouraged to wear white to the contest and it'll also be alumni weekend with several former men's volleyball in attendance. The Flyers will play an alumni match on Saturday evening following the basketball doubleheader.
Lewis ran its winning streak to five straight last weekend with a pair of 3-1 wins over ninth ranked Cal State Northridge and 15
th ranked UC Santa Barbara.
The Flyers finished the weekend hitting .355 as a team and had five players finish the weekend in double figures in kills led by
Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) with 27 and
TJ Murray (Barrington, IL/Barrington) added 21.
Matt Yoshimoto (Ventura, CA/Adolfo Camarillo) averaged 11.00 assists/per set on the weekend. Defensively, Murray averaged 1.75 blocks per set and was named the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association's Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday.
Michael Simmons (Aurora, IL/Waubonsie Valley) and Yoshimoto averaged 2.62 and 2.38 digs per set respectively.
Coenen leads a balanced offensive attack for Lewis with 3.33 kills per set.
Mitch Perinar (Channahon, IL/Minooka) is averaging 2.32 kills/set while
Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) is contributing 1.87 per set,
Dalen Instenes (Racine, WI/William Horlick) is adding 1.82 per set and Murray has 1.81 kills per set. Yoshimoto is distributing 8.78 assists per set. On the defensive side of the ball Murray and Mitchem lead the team in blocks per set with 1.19 and 1.17 respectively and on the back line Simmons is averaging 2.20 digs per set.
ABOUT USC: The Trojans were swept in a non-conference match at top ranked Long Beach State on Saturday. Gianluca Grasso led the Trojans with 11 kills, while Jack Wyett and Ryan Moss each had 8 kills. The 49ers outhit USC, .425 to .180, had more aces 8-to-0, digs (41-to-26) and blocks (6-to-1).
USC is led on the offensive side of the ball by Wyett with his 3.82 kills per set while Grasso is averaging 3.20 kills/set and Moss is contributing 3.11 kills per set. Chris Hall and Gert Lisha have split time at the setter position and are averaging 8.95 and 6.14 assists per set respectively. Defensively, Sam Lewis leads the team in total blocks with 25 and blocks per set with 1.09. Matt Douglas leads the way on the back line with 48 digs.
