ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's fourth ranked men's volleyball team extended its season opening winning streak to four with a straight sets win over Saint Francis in the Red Flash Invitational at DeGol Arena in Loretto, Pa., on Friday. The Flyers improve to 4-0 on the season while the Red Flash fall to 1-5.

The opening set was tightly contested featuring 19 ties and four lead changes as neither side held a lead larger than three points. Lewis trailed late in the set at 22-21 before scoring three of the next four points to regain the lead at 24-23 on a kill from Landon Krause (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly). SFU fought off the first set point getting a kill from AJ Schmidt to tie it at 24 but back-to-back kills from Krause and Kevin Kauling (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) gave the Flyers a 26-24 set victory.

Krause led Lewis with five kills in the set while Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) and TJ Murray (Barrington, Ill./Barrington HS) added four kills apiece.

The Flyers gave up the first point of the middle set but quickly seized control thanks to an 8-1 run. Lewis got two kills from Krause during the run and took advantage of four Red Flash errors. Mitchem added a kill and a solo block in the run as well. The Flyers led by as many as eight set in the stanza but Saint Francis got back to within four late in the set before Lewis closed it out to win 25-20.

The Flyers led 10-8 in set three but the Red Flash went on a 4-0 run to take its final lead of the match at 12-10 and forced Lewis to call a timeout. After the timeout, the Flyers responded with a 5-1 run to regain its two point advantage. That lead grew to 21-17 but SFU wouldn't go away scoring three straight points to cut the lead to 21-20 after Schmidt and Thomas Leahey teamed up to block Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin).

After another timeout, Lewis stormed back scoring the next three points to regain its four point cushion setting up match point. The Red Flash wouldn't quit answering with three straight to cut the lead to 24-23 before Murray finished it off with a kill to give the Flyers the 25-23 set victory.

Lewis finished the match recording 42 kills against 21 errors in 98 chances for a hitting percentage of .214. Mitchem led the Flyers with 10 kills while Krause and Murray added nine kills apiece and Coenen finished with eight kills. Kauling dished out 35 assists and Krause had a team-high nine digs. Murray and Krause had four total blocks each.

Saint Francis was led offensively by Michael Fisher with nine kills while Blake Liprando and Schmidt added eight and seven kills respectively. Roman Szwabinsky had 27 assists and Matthew Menosky had a match-high 10 digs. Lewis' defense held the Red Flash to a .102 attack percentage (31 kills-22 errors-88 total attacks).

The Flyers wrap up play in the Red Flash Invitational on Saturday taking on New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) at 11 a.m. (CST).