ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's third ranked men's volleyball team bounced back from its first loss of the season on Friday with a sweep of Ohio State on Saturday afternoon at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio. The Flyers improve to 6-1 overall and are 1-1 in the MIVA while the Buckeyes drop to 2-3, 1-1 MIVA.
The opening set saw nine ties and five lead changes. Ohio State held a 15-13 lead after a kill from Michael Wright but that would be its last lead of the set as Lewis went on a 7-2 run to grab a 20-17 advantage.
Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) had three kills in that run while
Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) added another. Mitchem and
Kevin Kauling (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) combined for two blocks in the run as well.
The Buckeyes cut the lead to 20-19 but after a timeout the Flyers ran off four of the next five to take a 24-20 lead. OSU wouldn't go quietly fighting off three set points before a service error from Jacob Pasteur gave the set to Lewis 25-23.
The Flyers used a 6-1 run to break an 8-all tie to seize control of the middle frame. The Buckeyes fought back to within 22-20 after a kill from Pasteur but Lewis was able to hold them off scoring three of the final four points to win the stanza 25-21 to take the commanding 2-0 lead.
The third set was all Flyers as they raced out to an 8-1 lead and never looked back on their way to a 25-11 set win. Lewis led by as many as 14 points and hit .409 in the stanza.
Cole Brillhart (York, Pa./Northeastern) led the Flyers with three kills in the stanza while Coenen and
Kyle Bugée (Cupertino, Calif./Homestead) had two kills apiece.
Lewis finished the contest hitting .377 (33 kills against four errors in 77 chances). Coenen led the Flyers with 10 kills while Mitchem added nine and Bugée finished with eight. Kauling handed out 25 assists and Bugée had a team-high 10 digs.
The Flyer defense held OSU to .143 attack percentage (35/22/91) for the match. Pasteur finished with a double-double recording match-highs in kills (11) and digs (10) while Wright had 23 assists.
Lewis begins a four-match homestand next Friday evening hosting Ball State in the first of two matches on the weekend at 7 p.m.
