ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's fourth ranked men's volleyball team opened its five-match homestand with a 3-1 win (25-20, 25-18, 16-25, 25-20) over Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve to 7-1 overall and 2-1 in the MIVA while the Mastodons drop to 2-3 overall and in the conference.
Lewis trailed by as many as four in the opening set before coming back to tie the set at 10 after a service error by Frederico Santos. Purdue Fort Wayne regained the lead scoring four of the next six points, but the Flyers once again came back to tie it at 16 on a kill from
Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin).
The two sides traded the next six points and were still tied at 19 when Lewis regained the lead on a service error by Pelegrin Vargas. The Flyers proceeded to score five of the final six points to win the opening set 25-20.
Lewis led for a majority of the second stanza and was in front 12-7 after a kill from Coenen. The Mastodons closed to within 14-10 on a kill from Santos but wouldn't get any closer as the Flyers pulled away thanks to a 13-6 run to build its largest lead of the frame at 23-17 on a service error from Richie Diedrich and would go onto win 25-18.
Lewis led by as many as four points early in the third set but couldn't overcome a 10-2 run from Purdue Fort Wayne that saw it take a 17-11 lead. The Flyers wouldn't get closer than five as the Mastodons went onto win 25-16 to extend the match to a fourth set.
Lewis never trailed in the final set as they built an early three-point lead, but Purdue Fort Wayne fought back to even things at 12 after a kill from Vicente Ibarra. The Flyers quickly regained its three-point lead scoring five of the next seven points. The Mastodons cut the deficit to 17-15 on a kill from Vargas but Lewis scored four of the next five points to extend its lead to 21-16 and wouldn't look back on its way to the 25-20 victory.
Coenen led the Flyers with 19 kills in the contest while
Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) and
Kyle Bugée (Cupertino, Calif./Homestead) added seven kills apiece.
Kevin Kauling (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) dished out 42 assists and Brillhart and Bugée finished with seven digs each. Lewis hit .411 for the contest recording 47 kills against eight errors in 95 chances.
Purdue Fort Wayne finished the match with a hitting percentage of .279 registering 55 kills against 24 errors in 111 swings and were led by Ibarra with a match-high 21 kills. Vargas and Bryce Walker added 12 and 11 kills respectively. Santos handed out 46 assists and Troy Gooch had a match-high 14 digs.
The two teams will meet again on Saturday at Neil Carey Arena with first serve scheduled for 6 p.m.
