ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The eighth ranked Lewis University men's volleyball is in Hawaii this weekend taking part in the Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Invitational. The Flyers (13-5) will take on three teams ranked in this week's AVCA DI-II Top 15 poll beginning with second ranked Hawaii on Thursday evening at 11 p.m. (CST).

Lewis will take on fourth ranked BYU at 8 p.m. (CST) on Friday in a rematch of their Jan. 6 meeting in Provo which was won by the Cougars in four sets. The Flyers conclude their trip on Saturday with a contest against 11^th ranked Penn State at 8 p.m. (CST).

This is the 24^th Outrigger Resorts Invitational. Hawaii (11-2) has captured eight Outrigger titles, including the last two, while BYU (14-4) and Penn State (10-4) are two-time champions. This will be the 21^st appearance at the event for the Nittany Lions while Lewis is making its seventh appearance and BYU is making its third trip.

The Rainbow Warriors enter the tourney having swept a two-match series with Concordia-Irvine. BYU extended its win streak to nine with a pair of home wins over Mountain Pacific Sports Federation foes Pepperdine and UCLA. PSU split a pair of Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association road matches with a win over NJIT and a five-set loss to Princeton.

As one of the nation's premiere men's volleyball tournaments, this year's Outrigger is one of the best. The field includes three NCAA Championship participants in Hawaii, BYU and Penn State. The UH-PSU match-up is a rematch of last year's NCAA Opening Round, which was won by the Warriors in five sets. UH and BYU met three times last season.

The Flyers have played well on its home floor this season winning 12 straight and 12 of 13 overall but have struggled away from Neil Carey Arena winning just once in four tries.

Last week Lewis dropped a top 10 battle in straight sets to Loyola at Gentile Arena last Wednesday. It rebounded with a pair of home sweeps over Lincoln Memorial (Tenn.) and King (Tenn.) last Friday and Saturday.

Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) contines to lead the offensive attack with 3.59 kills per set while Mitch Perinar (Channahon, IL/Minooka) and Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) are averaging 2.38 and 2.04 kills per set respectively. Matt Yoshimoto (Ventura, CA/Adolfo Camarillo) is distributing 9.14 assists per set and leads the team with 21 aces. On the defensive side of the ball, Mitchem leads the way on the front line with 60 total blocks while on the back line Michael Simmons (Aurora, IL/Waubonsie Valley) is averaging 2.35 digs per set.