LEBANON, Ill. – Lewis University's 20th ranked women's volleyball team swept McKendree (25-20, 25-11, 25-22) on Friday evening to clinch its second consecutive Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) regular season championship. The Flyers run their win streak to eight and improve to 22-6, 16-1 GLVC while the Bearcats fall to 8-19, 4-12 GLVC.

The opening set was a see-saw affair with seven ties and four lead changes. Lewis trailed by three early but eventually came back to take a 12-11 lead on a kill from Bella Ray (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic). The Flyers began to pull away scoring eight of the next 11 points to take its largest lead of the set at 20-14 on a kill by Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian). McKendree countered with four straight points to cut Lewis' advantage to 20-18 after an ace from Emma McIlhargie that forced the Flyers to take a timeout. After the timeout, Lewis responded scoring five of the final seven points to win the opener 25-20 on a kill from Ray.

The middle stanza was all Flyers as they scored 12 of the first 13 points and never looked back as they led by as many as 14 in the set. Lewis hit .345 in the frame recording 12 kills against two errors in 29 chances while holding the Bearcats to .000 attack percentage. Megan Schlechte (Strasburg, Ill./Stewardson-Strasburg) led the Flyers with five kills in the frame while Venema added three more.

Lewis led by four nearly halfway through the third set but McKendree came back to the set at 16 on a kill by Colleen Preusser. The Flyers answered right back running off four straight of their own to regain the lead at 20-16 on a kill from Ray. Lewis extended its lead to seven at 24-17 after a kill from Taki but the Bearcats wouldn't go quietly as they ran off five straight points to cut the Flyer lead to 24-22. Lewis was able to close out the match as Taki knocked down a kill to end the match and give the Flyers the 25-22 victory.

Lewis hit .287 in the contest recording 45 kills against 12 errors in 115 chances and were led by Venema with a match-high 14 kills while Schlechte added nine kills and Ray finished with six kills. Lauren Stenman (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul) finished with 31 assists, Ray had six blocks and Poppen had a match-high 20 digs.

McKendree finished the match with a hitting percentage of .106 with 32 kills against 19 errors in 123 swings. Preusser led the Bearcats with nine kills and Brianna Binder finished with seven kills. Catie Shane had 25 assists and Maddie Misner had a team-high 17 digs.

The Flyers wrap up the regular season on Saturday afternoon visiting Southern Indiana for a 3 p.m. match at Screaming Eagle Arena in Evansville, Ind.