ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The fifth ranked Lewis women's volleyball team ran its winning streak to six with a straight set victory over Southern Indiana at Neil Carey on Saturday afternoon. The Flyers (11-2, 5-0 GLVC) finished the match hitting .356 and recorded 48 kills against 11 errors.
Lewis got off to quick start scoring the first two points of the match but the Screaming Eagles (7-6, 1-4 GLVC) used an 8-3 run to take its biggest lead of the set at 8-5 after a kill from Shawntel James. The Flyers continued to trail at 11-9 before taking control thanks to an 8-1 run.
Tori Foster (Munster, Ind./Munster) had three kills in the run while
Caroline Stefanon (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg),
Alexandra Preuss (Elmhurst, Ill./York) and
Elizabeth Hyland (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) added one apiece.
Lewis stretched their lead to as many as six points and would go on to win the set 25-19 on a kill from
Abby Becker (Menomonee Falls, Wis./Menomonee Falls). Stefanon and Foster combined for 10 of the Flyers 20 kills in the opening frame.
The second set featured five ties and three lead changes. Lewis used a 10-1 run midway through the stanza to extend its one point lead to 10 after back-to-back service aces from Preuss. The lead eventually grew to 13 when Foster and Becker combined for a block of Lindsey Stose. The Flyers went onto win the set 25-12 on
Colleen Wilhelm's (Euclid, Ohio/Lake Catholic) sixth kill of the match.
Lewis dominated the third set scoring the first seven points and 11 of the first 12. Southern Indiana wouldn't get any closers than nine points the rest of the stanza as the Flyers cruised to a 25-8 win. Lewis hit .517 in the final frame. Hyland and Stefanon combined for nine of the team's 17 kills in the set.
Stefanon finished with a career-high 13 kills to lead the Lewis attack. Hyland added nine while Wilhelm finished with seven and Preuss tacked on six. Becker distributed 41 assists and
Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) had 15 digs.
The Flyer defense held USI to .059 hitting percentage and only 22 kills. Alyssa Yochum led the Screaming Eagles with eight kills but had only two after the first set. Casey Cepicky had 16 assists and 11 digs.
Lewis will play eight of its next nine matches on the road beginning next Friday (Sept. 21) at Missouri S&T at 7 p.m.
