DENVER, Colo. – The third ranked Lewis women's volleyball dropped its first contest of the season falling to 14th ranked Central Missouri 3-2 (25-23, 15-25, 13-25, 25-18, 7-15) on Friday night at the Premiere Challenge in Denver, Colo.
The Flyers (5-1) got off to a fast start scoring six of the first eight points. The Jennies (5-1) came back to take the lead at 22-21 after an attack error by
Elizabeth Hyland (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central). After a timeout, Lewis got a kill from
Caroline Stefanon (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg) and took advantage of back-to-back errors by the Jens to retake the lead at 24-22. After a kill by UCM made it 24-23, the Hyland knocked down a kill to give the Flyers the opening set 25-23.
The Jens dominated the next two sets hitting .333 in set two and used their defense in the third set holding Lewis to a negative .122 attack percentage. Stefanon,
Alexandra Preuss (Elmhurst, Ill./York) and
Tori Foster (Munster, Ind./Munster) had three kills apiece in the second set for the Flyers.
The Flyers responded in the fourth set hitting .300 and got four kills apiece from Preuss and Stefanon to win 25-18 and force the winner take all fifth set. Lewis led by as many as nine points in the fourth set.
UCM dominated the fifth set racing out to an 11-2 lead. Lewis cut the deficit to seven points on a pair of occasions but were unable to get any closer as the Jennies won the finale 15-7. Central Missouri hit .267 in the final set while holding the Flyers to a .059 attack percentage.
Lewis was held to a season-low .113 (50 kills/28 errors/195 total attacks) hitting percentage in the match. Preuss and Hyland led the way with 14 kills each while Stefanon added 10 kills.
Abby Becker (Menomonee Falls, Wis./Menomonee Falls) had 43 assists and
Ronni Katarzynski (Winfield, Ill./West Chicago) had 24 digs.
The Jens finished with 60 kills against 27 errors in 200 total attacks (.165 attack percentage) and were led by Audrey Fisher with 14 kills while Rylee Neigenfind and Kylie Hohlen added 13 kills each. Ally Offerdahl distributed 44 assists and Abby Skrastins had a match-high 31 digs.
The Flyers return to action on Saturday morning taking on Texas A&M-Commerce at 10 a.m. (CDT).
