ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's fourth ranked men's volleyball team begins a five match homestand this weekend hosting Purdue Fort Wayne this Friday (Feb. 19) at 7 p.m. and on Saturday (Feb. 20) at 7:30 p.m. Per MIVA policy no spectators will be allowed at Friday or Saturday's matches.
Lewis (6-1, 1-1 MIVA) remains ranked fourth in this week's NVA/AVCA Division I-II Top 15 Coaches Poll. The Flyers received 192 total points adjusted in this week's poll and are ranked behind BYU who is number one with 233 points and received 12 first-place votes while Hawai'I is second with 218 points and four first-place votes and UC Santa Barbara is third with 194 points.
Lewis returns to the court for the first time since Feb. 6 when it swept Ohio State to come away with a split in the two-match series in Columbus. The Flyers had to postpone their matches against Ball State to March 5 and 6 due to COVID.
Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) continues to lead the Lewis offense as he's averaging 3.92 kills per set and is hitting .324 on the season. In addition, he's got 12 aces and is second on the team in digs with 34.
Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) is averaging 2.88 kills per set and is hitting .534 for the season and is tied with
TJ Murray (Barrington, Ill./Barrington HS) for the team lead in blocks with 1.48.
Murray is hitting .417 on the season and averaging 1.44 kills per set while
Landon Krause (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly) is averaging 3.17 kills per set.
Kevin Kauling (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) is handing out an average of 10.16 assists per set while
Cole Brillhart (York, Pa./Northeastern) leads the team with 36 digs.
Coenen has moved into second place all-time in the rally scoring at Lewis with his 1,393 kills passing
Drew Pickering (Wauwatosa, Wis./Wauwatosa West) (2006-09) for third and Geoff Powell (2012-15) for second. Fabiano Barreto (2001-04) holds the career record in kills in the rally scoring era with 2,033. He needs two digs to pass Barreto for sixth on the all-time list in the rally scoring era and he needs six aces to move past Pickering for second in service aces in the rally scoring era.
Mitchem currently has the highest attack percentage in Lewis' history regardless of era at .478 (596-107-1036). He has also moved into the top 10 all-time in school history with his 332 total blocks.
The Flyers are ranked first in the nation in blocks averaging 3.42 per set, are sixth nationally in opponents hitting percentage at 0.190, seventh in hitting percentage at .309 and eighth in kills per set with 12.44.
Murray and Mitchem are ranked second and fourth in the nation in blocks per set while Mitchem is ranked second nationally in hitting percentage at .534.
Purdue Fort Wayne enters the weekend series with a record of 2-2 after winning both of their matches against Quincy last weekend. The Mastodons defeated the Hawks in four sets last Friday and then swept them on Saturday.
Pelegrin Vargas leads the 'Dons attack with 3.75 kills per set while Vicente Ibarra and Jon Diedrich are averaging 3.56 and 2.29 kills per set respectively. Frederico Santos and Sean Califf are the team's primary setters and averaging 9.88 and 7.57 set assists apiece.
Defensively, Bryce Walker and Richie Diedrich lead the way on the front-line averaging 1.07 and 0.86 blocks per set while on the back-line Troy Gooch is averaging 3.29 digs per set.
Lewis leads the all-time series against Purdue Fort Wayne 33-30 and has won 13 in a row. The Flyers swept the Mastodons last season in Fort Wayne.
