ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's 21st ranked women's volleyball begins its postseason quest this Friday (Nov. 19) taking on the University of Indianapolis in the quarterfinal round of the GLVC Tournament at 11:30 a.m. at the Eastside Centre in East Peoria, Ill. The Flyers enter the tournament as the number one seed while the Greyhounds earned the number eight seed.
Tickets are available for the tournament and can be purchased at GLVCsports.com. Ticket prices are $10 for adults and $5 for students and youth and there is an all-session pass available for $28.
Last Time Out – Lewis wrapped up its second consecutive GLVC Regular Season championship and sixth in the last seven years with a pair of victories last weekend to finish the regular season with a 23-6 record, 17-1 GLVC. The Flyers swept McKendree last Friday and then knocked off Southern Indiana in four sets on Saturday afternoon.
Helping Hand – Lewis ranks second in NCAA Division II in team assists with 1,443 this season trailing only Northwest Missouri St. who has recorded 1,456 assists. The Flyers are fourth in assists per set with 13.74. Sophomore setter
Lauren Stenman (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul) is fifth in the country in total assists with 1,163 and 11th in assists per set with 11.18.
It's Poppen – Fifth-year senior libero
Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) is ranked seventh in Division II in digs per set with 6.23 and is eighth in total digs with 648. She surpassed the 2,000 dig mark for her career with her 28 digs at Southern Indiana last Saturday and is just 49 digs shy of setting the single season record at Lewis which is held by Ronni Katarzynski who had 696 digs in 2017. Poppen is also 103 digs away from setting the career record at Lewis.
GLVC Tournament – The Flyers begin their quest for an 11th GLVC Tournament title this weekend. Their 10 titles leads the current Conference contingent, followed by UIndy with five, Rockhurst has four while Southern Indiana, the reigning Champion, has three and Truman State owns two titles. As for former league members Purdue Fort Wayne earned eight titles, Northern Kentucky won seven and Ashland and SIU Edwardsville captured one title each.
NCAA Regional Rankings – Lewis remains ranked fourth in the final NCAA Midwest Regional Rankings heading into the conference tournament. The top eight teams will be announced on Monday (Nov. 22) via a selection show on NCAA.com at 6:30 p.m. (CST).
About UIndy – The Greyhounds advanced to the GLVC Tournament thanks to Missouri S&T's four-set win at Drury last Saturday. The Hounds finished in a three-way tie for seventh with Illinois Springfield and Drury but advanced over Drury based on its head-to-head win against the Panthers back on Oct. 10.
Grace Hegwood leads the UIndy attack averaging 3.15 kills per set while Lauren Cullison, Emma Jones, Elizabeth Eads and Hannah Huppenbauer are averaging 2.63, 2.23, 2.17 and 2.04 per set. Alex Equihua is averaging 10.03 assists per set while on the defensive side Huppenbauer leads the blocking effort with 0.89 per set and on the back line MaKenna Barnhart is averaging 4.60 digs per set.
Series Stuff – Lewis leads the all-time series against the Greyhounds 55-17, has won 12 of the last 14 meetings and won four straight in the series. The Flyers won both matches against UIndy this season winning 3-1 on Sept. 28 at Indianapolis and 3-1 on Oct. 23 at Neil Carey Arena. This is the first postseason meeting between the two schools since 2015.
