EAST PEORIA, Ill. – The No. 13 Lewis women's volleyball team defeated Illinois Springfield in four sets to open the 2019 GLVC Volleyball Tournament on Friday afternoon at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill. The Flyers, seeded second in the tournament, improve to 27-4 while the Prairie Stars, seeded seventh, end their season with a record of 19-14.

Lewis dominated the opening set hitting .333 while holding UIS to a negative .128 hitting percentage. The Flyers began the match on a 5-0 run and never looked back. The Prairie Stars cut the lead to 9-5 on a kill from Megan Krasowski but Lewis responded with a 16-4 run to win the opener 25-9.

The Flyers broke open set two with a 10-4 run build a 15-9 lead after a service error from Kenzie Hendon. UIS closed the margin to four after a service error from Alexandra Preuss (Elmhurst, Ill./York) but Lewis extended its lead back to eight at 22-14 on a kill from Preuss. The Stars trimmed the lead to 23-17 but that was as close as they got as Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) finished the set off with a kill and then ace to give the Flyers the 25-17 victory.

Lewis led by four midway through the third set but Illinois Springfield went on a 12-0 run to take a 24-16 lead. The Flyers fought back to within 24-19 before falling 25-19 on a kill by Hannah Nicolaisen. Lewis was held to .018 attack percentage in the frame recording 14 kills against 13 errors in 57 chances while the Prairie Stars hit .170 (12/4/47).

Lewis led 12-9 in set four when UIS went on a 9-1 run to grab an 18-13 lead. That lead eventually grew to 24-18 when Nicolaisen and Brianna Bush teamed up to block Juliana Van Loo (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs). Trailing by six set points the Flyers chipped away eventually tying the stanza on a service from Andrea Zeiser (Eureka, Mo./Eureka).

The two sides swapped the next six points as UIS had three more chances to extend the match but Lewis fought off all three set points and evened things at 27 on a kill from Colleen Wilhelm (Euclid, Ohio/Lake Catholic). Venema put the Flyers ahead blocking Ali Splitt and then Lewis won the match on Wilhelm's kill to prevail 29-27.

The Flyers finished the match with a hitting percentage of .168 (60/28/191) and were led by Wilhelm with 20 kills while Megan Schlechte (Strasburg, Ill./Stewardson-Strasburg) added 12 and Van Loo finished with 10. Mikah Freppon (Cold Spring, Ky./Newport Central Catholic) had 30 assists while Preuss had 23 digs and Venema had eight total blocks including five solo.

The Prairie Stars finished the match with .077 attack percentage (39/25/182). Jailyn Borum led UIS with 10 kills. Becca Blakeley had 31 assists and Borum finished with 20 digs. Splitt had nine total blocks in the match.

Lewis takes on third seeded Missouri-St. Louis in the semifinal round of the GLVC Tournament at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill.