ROLLA, Mo. – Lewis' sixth ranked women's volleyball team won its ninth straight match with a sweep at Missouri S&T on Saturday afternoon in Rolla, Mo. With the win, the Flyers improve to 15-1, 4-0 GLVC while the Miners fall to 11-5, 1-3 GLVC.
Lewis trailed by three in the opening frame before going on a 10-4 run to take a 17-14 lead after a bad set by S&T's Sarah Cavanaugh. The Miners got a point back on a kill from Avery Reed but the Flyers answered with a 6-1 run to extend their lead to 23-16 on a kill from
Colleen Wilhelm (Euclid, Ohio/Lake Catholic). Lewis was able to close out the set after back-to-back attack errors by S&T.
The Flyers led by as many as six points in set two but the Miners refused to go away climbing back to within 18-17 after a kill from Emilee Schlader. Lewis responded with a 6-3 spurt to grab a 24-20 lead after an attack error by Schlader. S&T fought off three set points before the Flyers closed the set with a kill from
Alexandra Preuss (Elmhurst, Ill./York) to win it 25-23.
The final set saw eight ties and four lead changes. The Miners led by as many as four in the stanza and were looking to extend the match to a fourth set. They still held a 20-17 lead late in the frame but Lewis countered with a 5-2 run to even the set at 22 on a kill from Wilhelm. S&T regained the lead on a kill by Schlader but the Flyers scored the final three points of the match to win 25-23 and complete the sweep.
Lewis finished the match with an attack percentage of .167 while recording 43 kills against 20 errors in 138 attempts. Wilhelm finished with a match-high 15 kills while
Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) added nine and Preuss and
Megan Schlechte (Strasburg, Ill./Stewardson-Strasburg) had seven kills each.
Mikah Freppon (Cold Spring, Ky./Newport Central Catholic) handed out 34 assists and
Ronni Katarzynski (Winfield, Ill./West Chicago) had a season-high 28 digs. Venema and Preuss had three total blocks each.
The Flyers are back at home on Tuesday evening taking on Illinois Springfield at 7 p.m.
