ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's 21st ranked women's volleyball team swept Southwest Baptist on Senior Night on Friday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve to 17-6, 11-1 GLVC while the Bearcats drop to 10-14, 5-8 GLVC.
Lewis led wire-to-wire in the opening set as it raced out to an early nine-point lead and never let SBU get closer than eight points the rest of the stanza. That lead grew to as many as 15 points at 23-8 after kill by
Bella Ray (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic). The Flyers hit a .478 in the stanza recording 13 kills against two errors in 23 swings and held the Bearcats to a negative .103 attack percentage (4 kills/7 errors/29 attacks).
Southwest Baptist led early in the second set but it was short lived as Lewis ran off nine in a row to take an eight-point advantage. Ray had three kills and two blocks in that run while
Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) added a kill and an ace. The Bearcats cut Lewis' lead to three points at 12-9 on a Tia Gripado kill but wouldn't get any closer as the Flyers put the set away with an 8-2 run. Venema had four kills in that run while
Megan Schlechte (Strasburg, Ill./Stewardson-Strasburg) added an ace. Lewis took the middle frame 25-16.
The final set belonged to the Flyers as they hit .324 and recoded 14 kills against three errors in 34 swings.
Amanda Greening (Metamora, Ill./Metamora) had five kills in the stanza while Ray added three and Venema and
Natalie Stefanski (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet West) had two kills apiece. Lewis led by as many as 14 in the stanza and took the set 25-11.
Nine different Flyers recorded a kill in the match as the team finished with a .333 hitting percentage (42 kills against 11 errors in 93 swings). Venema led the way with 12 kills while Ray added nine and Greening chipped in with eight.
Lauren Stenman (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul) had 32 assists and
Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) had a match-high 14 digs. Ray finished with four blocks in the match while Venema and Greening had three blocks apiece.
Lewis' defense held SBU to a negative .059 attack percentage with 16 kills against 22 errors in 101 chances. The Flyers had eight team blocks in the contest. Rachel Francis led the Bearcats with eight kills. Lauren Pritchett had 13 assists and Aleena Peterson finished with 10 digs.
Lewis plays its final home match of the regular season on Saturday afternoon against Rockhurst at 3 p.m. Saturday's match will be the fifth annual Playing for Preemies match.
