ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The No. 7 Lewis men's volleyball team advanced to the MIVA Championship match for the fourth time in six years with a straight sets win over McKendree on Wednesday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve to 24-5 on the season while the Bearcats end their season with a record of 13-13.
Lewis, the top seed, will host Loyola, the second seed, in Saturday's championship match beginning at 7 p.m. at Neil Carey Arena. The two sides met twice in the regular season with the Flyers winning both matches by identical 3-1 scores.
Lewis hit .408 in the match while holding McKendree to a .205 hitting percentage.
Mitch Perinar (Channahon, IL/Minooka) led the Flyers with 16 kills while
Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) finished with eight and
TJ Murray (Barrington, IL/Barrington HS) added seven.
Matt Yoshimoto (Ventura, CA/Adolfo Camarillo) had 31 assists and three aces. Yoshimoto set the Lewis single season record for aces in a season with his 64th ace in set two passing Bart Bachorski for the top spot. Coenen had nine digs to lead Lewis.
The opening set was even at nine when the Flyers went on an 8-1 run to grab a 17-10 lead after one of Coenen's three aces in the match. The Bearcats cut the deficit to six a couple of times but were unable to get any closer as Lewis won the opener 25-17.
The Flyers raced out to a 9-1 lead in the middle stanza and were still up eight just past the midway point when McKendree began to make a run. The Bearcats went on a 10-5 run to cut the Lewis lead to 23-20 after a service error by Coenen. The Flyers were able to close out the set though scoring two of the final three points on a pair of kills from Perinar.
Lewis used a 7-3 run early in set three to extend a one-point into a five-point cushion on a kill from Perinar. That lead grew to as many as nine points after back-to-back McKendree attack errors. The Bearcats cut the margin seven but the Flyers were able to close it out with a service error.
Ethan Carroll and Zach Schnittker led McKendree with 12 and 10 kills respectively. Ryan Serrano distributed 24 assists and had six digs.
