ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The 10th ranked Lewis men's volleyball team remained unbeaten in conference action sweeping 12th ranked Ball State 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-17) on Friday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improved to 10-4 overall and 3-0 in MIVA play while the Cardinals dropped to 7-6, 1-2 in league play.
The opening set featured 15 ties and three lead changes but it was Lewis who was able to come out on top using a late run to take control of the frame. Ball State fought off two set points to extend the stanza but a service error by Kaleb Jenness gave the set to Lewis.
The Flyers hit .538 in the frame (16 kills-2 errors-26 attempts) while the Cardinals hit .429 (15 kills-3 errors-28 chances).
Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) was 7-of-7 in the stanza but Ball State's Matt Szews was 8-for-12 with an error.
Lewis used a 9-4 midway through set two to extend its lead to seven points on a kill by Mitchem. The Cardinals cut the deficit to 18-16 on a kill by David Siebum but the Flyers closed out the frame by scoring seven of the final 12 points to win 25-21.
Lewis raced out to an early four-point lead in final frame and led by as many as nine points in the stanza. Ball State never got closer than two points the rest of the way as the Flyers completed the sweep.
Lewis had a .432 attack percentage (39 kills-7 errors-74 attempts) in the contest and was led by Mitchem and
Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) with 11 and 10 kills respectively.
Julian Moses (Atlanta, GA/Atlanta International School) added seven kills.
Matt Yoshimoto (Ventura, CA/Adolfo Camarillo) finished with a match-high 38 assists while Coenen and
Jake Walenga (Frankfort, IL/Lincoln-Way North) had six digs each.
The Cardinals were held to .216 hitting percentage (37 kills-18 errors-88 chances) in the match. Szews had a match-high 12 kills while Jenness finished with seven kills. Quinn Isaacson had 32 assists and a match-high seven digs.
The Flyers are back at home on Saturday evening hosting Purdue Fort Wayne in the 'Playing For Preemies' match at 7 p.m.
