ROMEOVILLE, Ill. -- The Lewis University men's volleyball team begins a four match road trip on Thursday heading to Lebanon, Ill., to take on the McKendree Bearcats in a 7 p.m. match. The road trip continues on Saturday with a match at Ohio State starting at 6 p.m. (Central Time).
The Flyers (16-8, 7-3 MIVA) moved up to third in the conference standings after sweeping a pair of home matches last weekend against 15th ranked Fort Wayne and 11th ranked Ball State. Lewis was solid on the defensive side of the ball holding the Mastodons and Cardinals to a combined hitting percentage of .080 and averaged over four blocks per set in the two wins.
The Flyers had four players average over a block per set last weekend led by
TJ Murray (Barrington, IL/Barrington) with 1.83 while
Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) averaged 1.67 blocks/set and
Kyle Bugee (Los Altos, CA/Homestead) and
Mitch Perinar (Channahon, IL/Minooka) had 1.17 blocks per set apiece. Bugee, Perinar and
Michael Simmons (Aurora, IL/Waubonsie Valley) were solid on the back line as well combining for 53 of the team's 72 digs.
On the offensive side of the ball,
Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) paced the attack recording 25 kills while Bugee added 14 and Murry and Perinar contributed 13 kills each. Lewis hit .280 in the two matches and averaged 12.17 kills per set.
McKendreee enters Thursday's match with a record of 10-11, 5-5 MIVA and sits in fifth place in the conference standings two games behind the Flyers. The Bearcats went 2-1 last week defeating Quincy in three sets and then split a series with Princeton. The Tigers won the first match in five sets but McKendree won the second match in four sets.
The Bearcats have five players averaging over two kills per set on the season led by Jared Wilcox at 2.97 per set. Nolan Rueter, the reigning MIVA Defensive Player of the Week, is averaging 2.68 kills per set while Patrick Ross and Brendan Schmidt are averaging 2.32 and 2.19 kills per set respectively. Pasquale Fiduccia runs the offense and is dishing out nearly 10 assists per set while on the defensive side of the ball Rueter leads the way with 1.77 digs per set.
Ohio State is riding a six match winning streak heading into Thursday night's contest at sixth ranked Loyola. The Buckeyes (17-4, 8-2 MIVA) haven't lost since dropping their two matches to Lewis and Loyola over a month ago. OSU swept past Quincy last Friday and then defeated Lindenwood in five sets on Sunday afternoon.
The Buckeyes are hitting .337 as a team and are averaging 13.05 kills per set. Nicolas Szerszen leads the attack with 3.60 kills per set and is joined by Jake Hanes at 3.59 per set and Maxime Hervoir is contributing 3.18 kills per set. Sanil Thomas is the primary setter distributing over 11 assists per set. On the defensive side of the ball, Aaron Samarin and Szerszen lead the way with 2.04 and 2.03 digs per set respectively.
