ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's 12th ranked women's volleyball team wrapped up its regular season with a sweep of William Jewell on Saturday afternoon at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve to 26-4, 12-3 GLVC while the Cardinals end their season with a record of 11-21, 4-11 GLVC.
Lewis led wire-to-wire in the opening set scoring the first seven points of the match. William Jewell cut the lead to 9-7 thanks to a 7-2 run but the Flyers put the set away scoring 10 of the next 11 points to build an 11-point lead. The lead grew to as many as 13 points as Lewis won the opener 25-12.
The Flyers hit .270 in the opening stanza recording 16 kills against six errors in 37 chances and held the Cardinals to .000 hitting percentage.
Alexandra Preuss (Elmhurst, Ill./York) and
Tori Foster (Munster, Ind./Munster) combined for eight kills in the stanza.
Lewis used a 14-4 run in the second set to extend its lead to 18-7 on a block by Preuss and Foster. William Jewell cut the lead to seven multiple times but the Flyers were able to finish the set off on a kill by
Farah Taki (North Aurora, Ill./West Aurora) to take the commanding 2-0 lead.
Lewis built an early eight-point lead in the third stanza but the Cardinals scrapped their way back into the set cutting the lead to 22-17. The Flyers closed out the match scoring three of the final five points getting two kills from Preuss and one from Foster to complete the sweep.
Preuss finished with a match-high 14 kills while Foster added eight and
Colleen Wilhelm (Euclid, Ohio/Lake Catholic) and
Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) had seven kills each.
Mikah Freppon (Cold Spring, Ky./Newport Central Catholic) dished out 21 assists while
Ronni Katarzynski (Winfield, Ill./West Chicago) finished with 20 digs. Venema had four total blocks.
Lewis hit .220 for the match recording 45 kills against 18 errors in 123 chances and had eight total blocks.
The Flyer defense held the Cardinal attack to a .061 attack percentage (23k-16e-115 total attacks). Elizabeth Quinn and Maddie Wingert led WJC with six kills apiece in the contest.
Lewis returns to action next Friday as it opens play in the GLVC Tournament at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill. The Flyers received the second seed in the tournament and will take on the seventh seeded Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars at 2:30 p.m. Lewis defeated the Stars in four sets on Oct. 8 at Neil Carey Arena.
