QUINCY, Ill. – The 22nd ranked Lewis women's volleyball team ran its winning streak to seven straight with a sweep at Quincy on Friday evening. The seven straight wins matches a season-high and moves the Flyers (23-6, 14-3 GLVC) to within a half game of first place Drury.
Quincy (12-18, 2-15 GLVC) came out with a lot of energy in the opening set and held an 18-16 lead at one point. Lewis finished the opening strong though outscoring the Hawks 9-3 the rest of the way to win the opener 25-21.
The Flyers were led by
Elizabeth Hyland (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) and
Alexandra Preuss (Elmhurst, Ill./York) who combined for over half of the team's 17 kills in the stanza. Lewis hit .233 in the set and held Quincy to a .125 hitting percentage.
The Flyers scored the first three points of the middle stanza but the Hawks fought back to within 11-10 after a kill from Taylor McMonagle. Lewis responded with a 10-2 run to extend its lead to 21-12 on a kill by
Colleen Wilhelm (Euclid, Ohio/Lake Catholic). Quincy wouldn't get closer than eight points the rest of the way as the Flyers went onto win 25-15.
Lewis scored the first four points and seven of the first nine points in the final frame. The Hawks cut the deficit to two on a couple of occasions before the Flyers put it away with an 11-4 run. Hyland and Wilhelm each had two kills in the run while Preuss,
Abby Becker (Menomonee Falls, Wis./Menomonee Falls) and
Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) had a kill each. Quincy scored three straight points to cut the lead to 22-15 but Lewis scored the final three points of the match to complete the sweep 25-15.
Preuss led three Flyers in double figures with 12 kills while Hyland added 11 and Wilhelm finished with 10. Becker handed out 39 assists to go along with six kills and seven digs.
Ronni Katarzynski (Winfield, Ill./West Chicago) finished with a match-high 26 digs.
McMonagle and Emily Mueller led the Hawks with six kills each. Sara Rathbun handed out 20 assists and Marissa Gonzalez had 21 digs.
Lewis concludes the regular season on Saturday traveling to Kirksville, Mo., to take on Truman State at 4 p.m.
