CHICAGO– The No. 10 Lewis men's volleyball team defeated No. 7 Loyola 3-1 in a battle for the top spot in the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) standings on Friday evening at Gentile Arena in Chicago. With the win, the Flyers extend their winning streak to seven and improve to 14-4 overall and are the lone unbeaten team in MIVA play at 7-0. The Ramblers fall to 13-4, 6-1 MIVA and had their seven match winning streak broken.

Lewis outhit Loyola in the match .369 to .246 while recording 52 kills against 14 errors in 103 chances while the Ramblers recorded 55 kills against 24 errors in 126 chances.

Julian Moses (Atlanta, GA/Atlanta International School) led the way for the Flyers with 15 kills while Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) added 14 kills. Matt Yoshimoto (Ventura, CA/Adolfo Camarillo) dished out 45 assists and was tied with Kyle Bugée in digs with six. Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) had seven total blocks in the contest.

"I'm really proud of the guys," Lewis head men's volleyball coach Dan Friend said. "They fought hard all night. We did some really good things from the service line and capitalized on those opportunities with our block/defense."

Lewis led by four late in the opening set but a 7-3 run by Loyola evened things at 22. The Flyers regained the lead at 23-22 on a service error but the Ramblers got back-to-back to kills from Collin Mahan to get to set point first at 24-23. Mitchem extended the set with a kill but a service error gave Loyola another set point.

Coenen tied things at 25 but Mahan answered with a kill to put the Ramblers back in front. Coenen answered right back with a kill to even things at 26 but a block by Luke Denton and Paul Narup gave Loyola the lead back and then Mahan served an ace to give the Ramblers the 28-26 win.

Lewis used a 9-4 run midway through set two to break a 7-all tie and didn't trail the rest of the frame as it went onto win 25-17 to even the match at a set apiece. The Flyers hit .444 in the stanza while holding Loyola to .091 attack percentage.

Lewis trailed by as many as four points in set three but a late charge by the Flyers allowed them to come back and even things at 23 on an error by Narup. Moses gave Lewis the lead with a kill and then an error from Mahan gave Lewis the set 25-23. The Flyers hit .310 in the stanza while the Ramblers hit only .216.

Loyola scored the first point of the fourth set but after that it was all Flyers as they scored eight straight points to seize control and never let the Ramblers get closer than six points the rest of the way. Lewis led by as many as 10 points in the frame and finished with an attack percentage of .500 (13-2-22).

The Flyers take a break from MIVA play as they head out East next weekend for a pair of matches in New Jersey. Lewis opens the trip with a match at Princeton next Saturday at 6 p.m. (CST).