SPRINGFIELD, MO. – The 25th ranked Lewis women's volleyball team avenged an earlier loss to No. 15 Drury defeating them in four sets in the regional semifinals on Friday night at the O'Reilly Family Events Center in Springfield, Mo. The Flyers (27-7) dropped a five-set match to the Panthers (28-7) back in September.

Lewis advances to the Midwest Regional Championship match for the third straight year and will meet a familiar foe in Rockhurst at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The Hawks and Flyers meet in last year's regional championship with Rockhurst prevailing 3-1.

Caroline Stefanon (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg) led Lewis with a match-high 15 kills while Alexandra Preuss (Elmhurst, Ill./York) and Elizabeth Hyland (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) added 14 and 12 kills respectively.

The Flyers hit .259 (63 kills/18 errors/174 total attacks) while holding Drury to a .172 attack percentage.

Lewis scored the first four points of the match and never looked back on its way to a 25-17 victory in the opening set. Stefanon led the way with five kills as the Flyers hit .243 in the frame and limited the Panther attack to .049 hitting percentage. Lewis led by as many as 10 points in the stanza.

The Flyers raced out to another early lead in set two but Drury came back to even things at 9-9 on back-to-back kills from Bentley Mara. Lewis responded with a 7-1 run to seize control of the set on an ace from Hyland.

The Panthers cut the lead to 18-15 after an error by Preuss but the Flyers didn't allow them to get any closer as they ended the set on a 7-1 run to win 25-16.

Drury flipped the script in set three racing out to a 5-0 lead but Lewis battled back and eventually took the lead at 21-20 on a double block from Stefanon and Colleen Wilhelm (Euclid, Ohio/Lake Catholic).

The Panthers regained the lead scoring three straight points before Preuss stopped the run momentarily with a kill to make it 23-22. Drury scored the final two points of the set on back-to-back errors to win 25-22 and extend the match to a fourth set.

The Flyers built a 10-point lead midway through the final stanza but Drury refused to go quietly going on an 11-6 run to cut the Lewis lead to 22-17 after a kill from Kayla Allison. However, Lewis was able to close out the match scoring three of the final four points and ended it on a kill from Preuss to win 25-18.

Abby Becker (Menomonee Falls, Wis./Menomonee Falls) finished with 47 assists in the contest while Ronni Katarzynski (Winfield, Ill./West Chicago) led the way with 25 digs.

Bentley Mara and Emmalee Chrest had 12 kills each to lead the Panthers while Landyn Kozlowski finished with 10 kills. Kendra Sater distributed 40 assists and Bree Schmidt finished with 25 digs.