SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Lewis University's 20th ranked women's volleyball team completed the season sweep of Illinois Springfield with a 3-1 (25-11, 21-25, 25-23, 25-19) win on Tuesday evening at The Recreation and Athletic Center in Springfield, Ill. The win is the fifth straight for the Flyers and improves their record to 19-6, 13-1 GLVC while the Prairie Stars drop to 10-14, 6-7 GLVC.
Lewis opened the match on a 4-1 run and wouldn't look back on its way to a 25-11 victory in the opening frame. The Flyers led by as many as 14 in the stanza while hitting .455 and were led by
Megan Schlechte (Strasburg, Ill./Stewardson-Strasburg) and
Natalie Stefanski (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet West) with four kills apiece while
Bella Ray (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic) and Julianna Van Loo accounted for three kills each.
UIS opened the second set scoring the first five points and wouldn't trail in the frame. Lewis closed the deficit to 13-10 after back-to-back kills from Van Loo but the Prairie Stars answered right back running off four more in a row to take their largest lead of the set at 17-10. After the timeout the Flyers went on a 9-4 run to cut UIS' lead to 21-19 after a kill from Ray but that was the closest they got as the Stars finished the set scoring four of the final six points to win 25-21 and even the match at a set apiece.
Lewis built a four-point lead early in set three but it wouldn't last as UIS came back to even the set at 10 on a service error from
Lauren Stenman (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul). The Flyers began to take control scoring five of the next six points to build a four-point cushion after a kill from Stefanski. The Prairie Stars made a late push to try and tie the match at 24 but a crazy play ended up with Schlechte recording the kill to give Lewis the 25-23 set win.
The Flyers again raced out to an early lead in set four scoring four of the first five points and gradually started to pull away. They led by as many as six in the set but UIS wouldn't go away without a fight closing to within 20-17 after a kill from Megan Krasowski. Lewis was able to finish the set off by scoring five of the final seven points to win the set 25-19 to secure the victory.
The Flyers had five players reach double figures in kills led by Stefanski with a match-high 18 while Schlechte added 16, Ray had 15,
Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) finished with 12 and Van Loo chipped in with 10. Stenman finished one assist shy of her career-high with 61. Venema led the way with six total blocks and
Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) had a match-high 26 digs.
Lewis hit .381 in the contest recording 74 kills against 15 errors in 155 chances.
UIS finished the match with an attack percentage of .230 (46 kills/12 errors/148 chances) and was led by Hannah Nicolaisen and Ryleigh Warfel with 10 kills apiece. Krasowski added nine kills. Becca Blakely had 39 assists, Nicolaisen had two blocks and Amanda McConnell finished with 10 digs.
The Flyers continue their five-game road trip to conclude the regular season on Friday when they travel to Kirksville, Mo., to take on Truman State at 7 p.m. in Pershing Arena.
