ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's 19th ranked women's volleyball team will face a familiar foe in its opening round contest in the NCAA Midwest Regional as it'll meet Missouri-St. Louis this Thursday (Dec. 2) at 6:30 p.m. (CST) at Jim Wink Arena in Big Rapids, Mich. The Flyers (26-6) earned the number four seed in the tournament while the Tritons (24-8) grabbed the fifth seed.
Thursday's contest marks the third meeting between the two sides in the span of 26 days. Lewis won the first two meetings this season defeating the Tritons 3-1 in St. Louis on Nov. 6 and then again nine days ago as it rallied from a 2-1 deficit to defeat UMSL in a five-set thriller to claim its 11th GLVC Volleyball championship.
It's Poppen – Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) set Lewis' single season record for digs with her 31-dig performance against the Tritons in the GLVC championship match and she's closing in on the career mark as well as she needs 26 digs to pass Amy Choi for the top spot. Choi currently holds the record with 2,108 digs while Poppen is at 2,083 heading into Thursday's contest.
Balanced Attack – The Flyers have five players averaging over two kills per set this season and are led by
Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) with 3.30 while
Juliana Van Loo (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs) is at 3.20,
Megan Schlechte (Strasburg, Ill./Stewardson-Strasburg) and
Natalie Stefanski (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet West) are contributing 2.73 and 2.55 per set while
Bella Ray (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic) is averaging 2.17 per set.
League Leaders – As a team, Lewis holds the top spot in four categories in the GLVC. The Flyers are first in hitting percentage at .246, are first in opponent hitting percentage at .141, first in assists with 13.71 per set and first in kills at 14.84 per set.
Individually, Poppen leads the conference in total digs and digs per set (6.30).
Lauren Stenman (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul) is averaging 11.23 per set. Venema is second in hitting percentage and fourth in kills while Van Loo is third in attack percentage and fifth in kills. Ray is third in the conference in blocking with 1.10 per set.
ALL-GLVC Accolades – The Flyers landed six players on the All-GLVC squad including four on the first team. Earning first team accolades were Poppen, Stenman, Van Loo and Venema while Schlechte and Ray picked up second team honors. Poppen was named the GLVC's Libero of the Year for the second straight season and head coach
Lorelee Smith was named the GLVC's Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season.
About Missouri-St. Louis – The Tritons enter Thursday's contest having won nine of their last 12 games with two of those losses coming against Lewis. Charlotte Richards, the GLVC's Player of the Year, leads the Tritons and the conference with her 4.66 kills per set while Kaileen Herman is averaging 10.39 assists per set and Megan Woll is averaging 5.82 digs per set.
Series Stuff – Thursday's contest marks the 41st meeting all-time between Lewis and Missouri-St. Louis with Lewis having 33 of the first 40. The Flyers have won 15 of the last 16 contests dating back to 2010.
