ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - Strong finishes in each set helped the No. 10 Lewis men's volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-18) win over No. 15 Fort Wayne Thursday (March 22) in a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association match at Neil Carey Arena.
 
After Fort Wayne scored the first point of the opening set, Lewis responded with four straight to take a 4-1 lead. The Flyers remained in the lead until three straight points by the Mastodons tied the game at 12. The two teams traded points for much of the rest of the first set until the Flyers scored two straight points to take a 24-22 lead behind a pair of blocks by Matt Yoshimoto (Ventura, CA/Adolfo Camarillo) and Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook), with Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) also contributing on the second one. Following a Fort Wayne point, Coenen finished the set with a kill and a 25-23 win.
 
Lewis hit .243 for the set (12 kills, three errors, 37 attacks), while Fort Wayne hit .147 (12-7-34). Coenen had five kills in the set, while Yoshimoto totaled nine assists.
 
The first multi-point lead in the second set didn't come until nearly midway through the match when the Mastodons took an 11-9 lead. The Flyers came back to tie the match at 13 after back-to-back kills by Coenen. After a Fort Wayne point, Lewis scored three straight points, thanks to a kill by Kyle Bugee (Los Altos, CA/Homestead) and a block by TJ Murray (Barrington, IL/Barrington). But the Mastodons came back with five straight points to take a 19-16 lead. Lewis came right back with five straight points to take a 21-19 lead as Coenen, Mitch Perinar (Channahon, IL/Minooka) and Murray all had kills and Yoshimoto finished the run with an ace. Two more Coenen kills gave the Flyers a 24-21 advantage. After a Mastodon point, they committed a service error to end the set.
 
Coenen tallied four more kills in the second set and Yoshimoto had nine more assists. The Flyers limited IPFW to .130 hitting through two sets.
 
After a back-and-forth start to the third set, Lewis took control with a 6-1 run to take a 14-9 lead midway through the set, led by a pair of kills by Murray. Fort Wayne got to within two at 16-14 and again at 18-16, but the Flyers would pull away from there, scoring five of the final six points of the match.
 
Coenen finished the match with 15 kills, while Bugee added eight. Yoshimoto dished out 32 assists and had four aces. Michael Simmons (Aurora, IL/Waubonsie Valley) and Perinar had 12 digs each, while Bugee added 11. Murray had five block assists. The Flyers held the Mastodons to a .115 hitting percentage (28-17-96), while the Flyers hit .219 (39-16-105).
 
The win moves the Flyers to 15-8 overall and 6-3 in the MIVA, while Fort Wayne falls to 15-8, 3-6.
 
The final home regular season game for the Flyers is Saturday night at 7 p.m. against No. 11 Ball State.