ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The No. 10 Lewis Flyer men's volleyball team swept past No. 15 Fort Wayne in the quarterfinal round of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tournament opener on Saturday night at Neil Carey Arena. Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) and Mitch Perinar (Channahon, IL/Minooka) led the Flyers (19-10) with 17 and 15 kills respectively.

"Mitch Perinar (Channahon, IL/Minooka) came out of the gates hot for us," Lewis men's volleyball head coach Dan Friend said. "He did a nice job establishing himself with nine kills in game one and we definitely rode him. IPFW was going after it in game one and I thought we did a good job balancing it out by getting some digs and some transition kills which was great.

"I thought we got better in games two and three," Friend continued. "We managed the service line really well putting pressure on them. We ended the night with only five errors and had 40-some kills. Yoshi (Matt Yoshimoto (Ventura, CA/Adolfo Camarillo)) did a great job finishing with 40 assists and finished with a double-double with 10 digs. We ended the match with 37 digs total which gave us several second chance opportunities."

Lewis trailed 19-17 in the opening set but used a 5-2 run to take control of the set after Perinar's eighth kill of the set. Pelegrin Vargas kept the Mastodons alive with his fourth kill of the set but it wouldn't be enough as Perinar finished it off with his ninth kill of the frame. The Flyers hit .333 in the opening set while IPFW hit .379.

Lewis had a four point lead for most of the second set but the Mastodons rallied to it at 20 after an ace by Vargas as part of a 7-3 run. Vargas had two kills in that run to go along with the ace. The Flyers responded by scoring four of the next five points to get to set point after another Perinar kill. Tomas Gago extended the set with a kill after Perinar was called for being in the net but Julian Moses (Atlanta, GA/Atlanta International School) knocked down a kill to give the set to Lewis 25-22 and a commanding 2-0 lead.

The Flyers led wire-to-wire in the third set leading by as many as 10 late in the set. Fort Wayne made things interesting with a 6-2 run to cut the margin to six points before Coenen ended the match with a kill to secure the 25-18 win. Lewis hit .500 in the final set while holding the Mastodons to a .194 hitting percentage.

The Flyers finished the match with 49 kills against 15 errors in 94 attempts for a hitting percentage of .362. Yoshimoto had 40 assists and 10 digs while Coenen was one dig shy of a double-double. Moses and TJ Murray (Barrington, IL/Barrington) added seven and kills respectively.

Fort Wayne ended the match hitting .237 recording 37 kills against 14 errors in 97 chances. Vargas led the Mastodons with 10 kills while Colton Stone and Richie Diedrich had six kills each. Michael Keegan had 22 assists while Kolbie Knorr finished with seven digs.

Lewis travels to Columbus, Ohio to take on Ohio State in the semifinal round of the MIVA Tournament beginning at 6 p.m. (CDT).

"We're excited to get another shot at those guys," Friend said. "They're a good team and we'll give them everything we've got."