ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis' 14th ranked women's volleyball team swept past Saginaw Valley State in its NCAA Midwest Regional quarterfinal contest on Thursday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve to 28-5 while the Cardinals end their season with a record of 20-9.

Lewis, seeded first in the regional, opened the match with a 6-1 run and never allowed SVSU, seeded eighth, to get closer than three points in the opening stanza. The Flyers used an 11-4 run to extend a four-point lead to an 11-point margin on a kill from Juliana Van Loo (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs). Lewis went onto win the opening set 25-13.

The Cardinals built a four point lead midway through the second set before the Flyers went on a 10-1 run to grab a 19-14 advantage. Alexandra Preuss (Elmhurst, Ill./York), Colleen Wilhelm (Euclid, Ohio/Lake Catholic) and Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) each contributed kills in the run while Haley Sobieralski (Indianapolis, Ind./Franklin Central) added a service ace. Saginaw Valley cut the lead to 20-17 but Lewis closed the set on a 5-2 run to win 25-19 on a kill from Wilhelm.

The Flyers jumped out to an early lead in the third set but the Cardinals came back to cut the lead to three late in the set. After a timeout, Lewis regrouped and closed the match on a 7-2 run to win 25-17.

The Flyers hit .256 in the contest (41 kills/11 errors/117 total attacks) while holding Saginaw Valley to .058 attack percentage.

Wilhelm had a match-high 11 kills while Van Loo added nine and Venema and Megan Schlechte (Strasburg, Ill./Stewardson-Strasburg) had six kills apiece. Sobieralski and Mikah Freppon (Cold Spring, Ky./Newport Central Catholic) had 18 assists apiece and Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) finished with 21 digs.

Maria Vukaj and Rylee Zimmer had six kills each to lead the Cardinals.