SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – In a top-15 matchup, the fourth ranked Lewis women's volleyball team fell at 14th ranked Drury 3-2 (25-23, 25-22, 19-25, 21-25, 15-17) on Saturday afternoon. The loss snapped the Flyers (12-2, 6-1 GLVC) seven match winning streak.
Alexandra Preuss (Elmhurst, Ill./York) finished with a match-high 21 kills while
Elizabeth Hyland (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central) and
Caroline Stefanon (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg) added 18 and 15 kills respectively.
Abby Becker (Menomonee Falls, Wis./Menomonee Falls) handed out 55 assists while Hyland led Lewis with 28 digs. Four Flyers recorded at least 20 digs in the contest.
Lewis stormed back from a six-point deficit to win the opening set 25-23 and then overcame a deficit midway through the second set to win that one 25-22 to take the commanding 2-0 lead into the intermission.
The Panthers (12-2, 6-0 GLVC) stormed back to win the third set 25-19 outhitting the Flyers .157-to-.143 to extend the match. The fourth set was tied at 12 when Drury took the lead for good scoring four of the next six points. Abby Welther gave Drury the lead with a kill. Lewis cut the deficit to 16-15 after a service error but the Panthers responded scoring five of the next eight points to build a 21-18 advantage on another kill from Welther.
The Flyers fought back to within 23-21 after another service error but Drury took the set by scoring the final two points to force the winner take-all fifth set.
In that final set Lewis jumped out to a 3-1 lead but the Panthers countered scoring six of the next seven points to grab a 7-4 lead and forced the Flyers to call a timeout. Lewis responded out of the timeout with a 5-1 run to regain the lead at 9-8 when Preuss and Stefanon teamed up to block Bentley Mara.
The two sides were still even at 11 when the Flyers appeared to take control scoring three of the next four points to grab a 14-12 lead after a kill from Hyland. Lewis was unable to close it out however as Drury took advantage of a pair of Flyer errors to even things at 14. Preuss gave Lewis the lead back with her final kill of the contest but once again the Flyers were unable to close it out as the Panthers scored the final three points of the match to win 17-15.
Lewis concludes its three match road trip next Saturday when it travels to Indianapolis, Ind., to take on the Indianapolis Greyhounds at 2 p.m. (CT).
