ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The 12th ranked Lewis women's volleyball team rallied from an 0-2 deficit winning the final three sets to defeat No. 20 Rockhurst 3-2 (20-25, 24-26, 25-23, 25-18, 15-10) in a battle of top 20 teams on Friday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve to 25-4, 11-3 GLVC while the Hawks drop to 25-7, 12-2 GLVC.

The opening set went back-and-forth with six ties and four lead changes. The set was even at 14 when Rockhurst made a run building a three-point lead. Lewis cut the deficit to 20-19 on a kill from Juliana Van Loo (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs) but the Hawks closed the set scoring five of the final six points to take the opener 25-20.

The Flyers were their own worst enemies in the opening set committing seven errors despite recording 17 kills and hit .227 in the frame while Rockhurst recorded 12 kills against zero errors in 33 chances.

The second session was equally as tight with nine ties and four lead changes. Lewis led by as many as four at 16-12 but the Hawks responded with a 7-1 run to grab a 19-17 lead. The Flyers evened things at 19 after back-to-back kills from Colleen Wilhelm (Euclid, Ohio/Lake Catholic) but Rockhurst answered scoring three of the next four points to grab a 22-20 lead.

Lewis fought back to even things at 23 but the Hawks got to set point first on a kill from Alyssa Woodman. The Flyers fought off the first set point tying things on a kill from Alexandra Preuss (Elmhurst, Ill./York). However, Rockhurst scored the final two points to win the set 26-24.

Lewis built a seven-point lead midway through set three but the Hawks fought back with six straight points to cut the lead to 16-15. The Flyers answered with a 6-0 run of their own to regain their seven-point lead at 22-15. Rockhurst kept fighting though responding with an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 24-23 on a kill from Dani Prusha. Lewis was able to close out the set and extend the match on the next point as Wilhelm and Mikah Freppon (Cold Spring, Ky./Newport Central Catholic) teamed up for a block.

The Flyers built another big lead in set four but once again the Hawks made things interesting thanks to a 7-3 run to trim the lead to 19-16. Lewis closed out the fourth set scoring six of the final eight points to win 25-18 to even the match at two sets apiece.

Rockhurst led 6-4 in the deciding set before the Flyers seized control thanks to a 6-1 run. Haley Sobieralski (Indianapolis, Ind./Franklin Central) had an ace in the run while Van Loo had two kills in the run and Preuss added another. The Hawks got back-to-back kills from Woodman to cut the lead to 10-9 but that was the closest they got as Lewis finished the set scoring five of the final six points to win the set 15-10. Van Loo added two more kills and had an ace on match point while Tori Foster (Munster, Ind./Munster) had two kills as well.

Foster finished with a match and career-high 16 kills in the contest to lead five Flyers in double figures. Wilhelm had 14 kills while Van Loo, Preuss and Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) had 11 kills apiece. Sobieralski had 29 assists and Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) had a career-high 30 digs. Foster also had a career-high with seven total blocks.

Lewis finished the match hitting .258 (73 kills-24 errors-190 total attacks) while holding Rockhurst to a .197 attack percentage (57k-20e-188ta). Karli Reichert and Mary Rolf led the Hawks with 14 kills each.

The Flyers host William Jewell in the regular season finale at 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Lewis will honor its five seniors at the conclusion of the match.