ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The 10^th ranked Lewis Flyer men's volleyball team avenged an earlier defeat to 11^th ranked Ball State with a sweep of the Cardinals on Saturday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers (16-8, 7-3 MIVA) had a hitting percentage of .381 and 14 total blocks in the contest.

Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) led the offensive attack with 10 kills while Mitch Perinar (Channahon, IL/Minooka) and TJ Murray (Barrington, IL/Barrington) chipped in with eight kills apiece. Kyle Bugee (Los Altos, CA/Homestead) finished the match with six kills, seven digs, three aces and six total blocks. Matt Yoshimoto (Ventura, CA/Adolfo Camarillo) distributed 33 assists.

The Lewis defense held the Cardinals (13-11, 6-4 MIVA) to .038 hitting percentage in the contest. Matt Szews led the way with six kills while Matt Walsh and Parker Swartz added four kills each. Jake Romano handed out 21 assists while Szews and Blake Reardon had digs each.

The Flyers opened the match on a 7-2 but Ball State crept back into it by scoring four of the next six points to cut the deficit to 9-6 on a kill from Szews. Lewis responded with a 9-1 run and forced the Cardinals to use both of their timeouts during the run. The Flyers hit .579 in the opening set and cruised to the 25-13 set win.

The second stanza was tight early before Lewis began to gain some distance with a 5-2 run midway through the frame. Ball State cut the lead to two twice but the Flyers answered with a 5-1 run to push the lead to six and held off a late Cardinal charge to win the second set 25-21. Lewis hit .391 in the middle stanza.

The Flyers fell behind by four to begin the third set but used a 9-2 run to take an 11-8 lead on an error from Parker Swartz and forced Ball State to take a timeout. The Cardinals evened the frame at 13 after a kill from David Siebum but Lewis countered with a 7-3 run to take a 20-16 lead. Coenen had three kills in that run. Ball State cut the lead to 20-18 after a Flyer error but Lewis ended the set scoring five of the final seven points of the match to win 25-20 and complete the sweep.

The Flyers begin a four-match road trip to close out the regular season next Thursday traveling to Lebanon, Ill., to take on McKendree at 7 p.m.