EAST PEORIA, Ill. – The 23rd ranked Lewis women's volleyball team rallied to defeat Truman State 3-1 in the quarterfinal round of the GLVC Tournament at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill., on Thursday evening.
Abby Becker (Menomonee Falls, Wis./Menomonee Falls) narrowly missed a triple-double recording 39 assists, 16 digs and eight kills in the contest.
Meeting for the second time in six days the Flyers (25-6) and Bulldogs (21-11) went back-and-forth all night in a very competitive match. There were 33 ties and 19 lead changes in the contest.
Truman State hit .394 in the opening set while recording 17 kills and held the Lewis attack to only nine kills. The Flyers led 10-8 in the frame but the Bulldogs seized control with a 5-1 run to build a 13-11 lead. Lewis came back to even things at 13 but Truman answered with 5-2 spurt to build an 18-15 advantage on back-to-back kills from Ellie Kaat.
The Flyers cut the deficit to 18-16 but the Bulldogs countered again with another 5-2 surge to grab a 23-18 lead after a kill from Jocelyn Livingston. Lewis fought off two set points but the stanza went to the Bulldogs 25-20 on a kill by Natalie Brimeyer.
The second frame was the tightest of the match featuring 13 ties and nine lead changes. The Flyers fell behind early before taking the lead thanks to an 8-3 run. The two sides again proceeded to go back-and-forth with Truman the first to reach 20 on a kill from Holly Hildebrand. The 'Dogs led 20-18 but this time it was Lewis' turn to respond running off four straight points to regain the lead at 22-20 after a service ace from
Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West).
Truman, fighting to extend its season, answered right back with three straight points to regain the lead at 23-22 and forced the Flyers to call their final timeout of the set. Lewis responded out of the timeout scoring the final three points of the set to win 25-23 and even the match at a set apiece.
Elizabeth Hyland (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) had a huge block to set up set point and then
Morgan Goodman (Cedar Hills, Mo./Home) served it out with an ace.
The Flyers led by as many as five points in the swing set but the Bulldogs cut the deficit to one on two different occasions. With Lewis leading 20-19, it scored five of the final six points to close out the set to win 25-20. Hyland had two kills in that run while Becker and Collen Wilhelm added one each.
The Flyers were leading 11-9 in set four when Truman went on an 8-2 run to take its biggest lead of the set at 17-12. Lewis tried to chip away at the margin but were just trading points with the Bulldogs. Truman led 22-18 after a kill from Kaat when the Flyers began to make their final push.
Hyland and
Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) started a 5-0 run with back-to-back kills and then Wilhelm and Venema teamed up for a block to make it 22-21. Venema followed that up with a solo block to even things at 22 and then Kaat hit into an error to give Lewis the lead back at 23-22.
Livingston quieted the run momentarily with a kill to even things at 23 but Goodman hammered home a kill to give the Flyers a 24-23 lead and their first match point. Brimeyer and Livingston teamed up for a block on Goodman to extend the match. Lewis reached its second match after an error by Morgan Smith and then ended the match when Goodman and
Caroline Stefanon (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg) teamed up to block Livingston to give the Flyers a 26-24 victory.
Lewis finished the match with 59 kills and had a hitting percentage of .202. Hyland had a match-high 19 kills, 15 in the final two sets, while Wilhelm added nine and Venema joined Becker with eight kills.
Ronni Katarzynski (Winfield, Ill./West Chicago) finished with 27 digs.
The Flyers recorded 12 blocks in the contest with Venema leading the way with eight total blocks.
Kaat led four Bulldogs in double figures with 16 kills. Savvy Hughes handed out 43 assists while Lauren Wacker finished with a match-high 31 digs.
Lewis takes on 25th ranked Rockhurst in the semifinals on Friday at 5:30 p.m., at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill. The Hawks swept Indianapolis in their quarterfinal match on Thursday.
