HAMMOND, Ind. – Lewis University's 16th ranked women's volleyball team dropped two matches on Friday at the Midwest Region Crossover at the Hammond Sportsplex in Hammond, Ind. The Flyers lost their first match of the day to No. 25 Michigan Tech 3-0 (23-25, 26-28, 12-25) and then dropped the nightcap to No. 17 Hillsdale 3-0 (22-25, 12-25, 19-25).

Lewis (14-6) led by as many as five at 21-16 in the opening set against the Huskies (13-4) but were unable to close the set out as Michigan Tech scored nine of the final 11 points to win the frame 25-23. The Flyers led 23-20 but ended the set committing four attack errors and had a bad set.

Lewis trailed by as many as five points in the middle stanza but came back to even the set at 24 on a kill by Lauren Stenman (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul). The Huskies regained the lead at 25-24 when Morgan Radtke and Laura De Marchi teamed up to block Natalie Stefanski (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet West). The Flyers evened the set at 25 after an attack error by Anna Jonynas but Jonynas came right back with a kill to give MTU a 26-25 lead. Juliana Van Loo (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs) and
Farah Taki (North Aurora, Ill./West Aurora) teamed up to block Jonynas to even things at 26 but couldn't get over the hump as the Huskies scored the final two points to win the set 28-26.

The third set was all Tech as they raced out to an early five-point lead and led by as many as 13 points in the frame. It hit .667 in the frame while holding Lewis to a .111 attack percentage.

The Flyers concluded the match hitting .133 with 40 kills against 22 errors in 135 chances. Stefanski led Lewis with 11 kills while Van Loo added nine. Stenman had 33 assists, Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) finished with 19 digs and Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) had five total blocks.

The Huskies hit .232 for the match recording 47 kills against 15 errors in 138 chances and were led by Olivia Ghormley with 15 kills while Jonynas and Jillian Kuizenga added nine kills apiece. De Marchi had 32 assists and 17 digs and Jonynas had three total blocks.

In their second contest of the day the Flyers went back-and-forth in the opening set against the Chargers (18-2). Lewis trailed by as many as five at 14-9 but responded with an 8-2 run to grab a 17-16 lead after a kill from Venema. Hillsdale battled back scoring four of the next five points to regain the lead at 20-18 on back-to-back kills from Maddie Clark.

The Flyers countered with three straight of their own and took its final lead of the set on a kill from Taki to make it 21-20. The Chargers scored five of the final six points including the last three to take the opener 25-22.

Hillsdale opened the second set scoring six of the first seven points and wouldn't look back as it led by as many as 13 in the set. The Chargers hit .314 in the stanza recording 11 kills against no errors in 35 chances while holding Lewis to a negative .020 hitting percentage.

The Flyers led by as many as four in the third frame but Hillsdale came back thanks to a 9-2 run to grab a 15-12 lead when Maggie DePorre and Maizie Brown teamed up to block Stefanski. Lewis answered scoring six of the next eight points to retake the lead at 18-17 when Venema and Stenman blocked Clark. It would be the last lead of the set for the Flyers as the Chargers closed the match on an 8-1 run to win 25-19.

Lewis was held to a season-low hitting percentage of .094 (37 kills/23 errors/149 total attempts) in the contest. Venema led the Flyers with 11 kills. Stenman added 28 assists and Poppen had 26 digs.

Hillsdale recorded 39 kills against seven errors in 133 chances to finish the match with a .241 attack percentage.

Clark finished with a match-high 18 kills while Allyssa Van Wienen added nine kills to lead the Chargers. Lindsey Mertz finished with 34 assists, Clark, Brown and Van Wienen had four total blocks apiece and Karoline Shelton added 26 digs.