PALO ALTO, Calif. – It wasn't easy, but Lewis University's fifth ranked men's volleyball team overcame a slow start to defeat No. 13 Stanford 3-1 (15-25, 25-14, 25-23, 25-23) on Friday evening at Burnham Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif. The Flyers won their seventh straight match to improve to 14-4 while the Cardinal fall to 6-10.
Lewis trailed 8-6 in the opening set before Stanford seized control with a 9-2 run to extend its lead to 17-8. The Flyers wouldn't get closer than nine points the rest of the stanza. The Cardinal hit .429 in the frame and was led by Jaylen Jasper with five kills. Lewis struggled to get its offense going hitting negative .105 with five kills against seven errors in 19 swings.
The Flyers flipped the table in set two hitting .429 while holding Stanford to a negative .136 hitting percentage.
TJ Murray (Barrington, IL/Barrington HS),
Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) and
Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) combined for 10 kills in 13 swings in the frame. Lewis used a 10-3 run to break an early tie at 6 all. The Flyers led by as many as 11 in the set and went onto win 25-14 to even the set at a match apiece.
The third set saw 10 ties and three lead changes. Lewis led 12-8 after a kill from Coenen but a 7-3 run by the Cardinal evened the set at 15. The Flyers scored four of the next six points to take a 19-17 lead when Mitchem and
Kyle Bugée (Cupertino, Calif./Homestead) teamed up to block Jasper.
Stanford responded with a 5-1 run of its own to take its final lead of the set at 22-21 after a service error from Bugée. Lewis had one more run in them though scoring four of the final five points to win the set 25-23.
The fourth set played out similar to set three but this one was even tighter with 17 ties and four lead changes. The Flyers trailed 16-13 before going on a 5-1 run to take an 18-17 lead on a kill from Mitchem. Lewis extended its lead to 21-19 but the Cardinal responded scoring four of the next five points to regain the lead at 23-22.
Murray terminated a ball to even things at 23 and then Coenen served an ace to put the Flyers at match point. An attack error by Jasper gave Lewis the 25-23 victory.
The Flyers finished the match with an attack percentage of .264 recording 41 kills against 17 errors in 91 chances. Mitchem led the way for Lewis with 13 kills and was joined in double figures by Coenen and Murray with 10 kills apiece.
Kevin Kauling (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) handed out 33 assists and
Dalen Instenes (Racine, WI/William Horlick) had a match high 11 digs.
Stanford hit .202 for the match registering 41 kills against 19 errors in 109 swings. Jasper finished with a match high 18 kills and was the only Cardinal to reach double figures. Nathan Lietzke finished with 34 assists while Will Rottman and Justin Lui had seven digs apiece.
The two teams meet again on Saturday evening at Burnham Pavilion at 8 p.m. (CST).
