ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's fifth ranked men's volleyball team bounced back with a sweep of Ball State on Friday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve to 9-2, 4-2 MIVA while the Cardinals drop to 7-3, 4-2 MIVA.

Lewis opened the match on an 11-5 run and never looked back in the opening stanza on its way to a 25-17 victory. The Flyers hit .400 (15 kills/one error/35 total attempts) in the frame and were led by Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) and Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) who combined for 11 of those kills. Lewis' defense held Ball State to a .032 attack percentage (nine kills/eight errors/31 swings) in the set.

The second frame was tightly contested featuring 15 ties and four lead changes. The Cardinals held a 17-13 after Felix Egarevba and Blake Reardon blocked Coenen. The Flyers responded with five straight points to take an 18-17 lead on a kill from Kyle Bugee (Cupertino, Calif./Homestead). It was Lewis' first lead in the set since it was 8-7. The two sides exchanged the next 11 points and were tied at 23 when the Flyers seized control. Coenen knocked home a kill from Kevin Kauling (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) forcing Ball State to take its final timeout of the set.
Following the timeout, Coenen and TJ Murray (Barrington, Ill./Barrington HS) teamed up to stuff Reardon to give Lewis a 25-23 set victory.

The Flyers led 13-10 nearly halfway through set three but the Cardinals countered with a 6-2 run to take a 16-15 lead after a bad set by Cole Brillhart (York, Pa./Northeastern). Lewis responded with a 5-1 run of its own to regain the lead at 20-17. The Flyers wouldn't let Ball State get closer than two points the rest of the set as they would go onto win 25-21 to complete the sweep.

Mitchem and Coenen paced the Lewis attack with 16 kills apiece. Mitchem hit an impressive .889 (16-0-18) for the match while Coenen had an attack percentage of .267 (16-4-45). Bugee also added nine kills in the contest. Kauling had a match-high 42 digs while Carlos Jimenez (Miami Beach, Fla./FLVS) had a match-high 13 digs. Murray had five blocks in the contest.

The Flyers finished the match with a .339 attack percentage recording 47 kills against 10 errors in 109 swings.

Kaleb Jenness led the Cardinals with 13 kills while Reardon finished with nine. Quinn Isaacson had 30 assists and Jenness had 12 digs. Reardon and Egharevba had three blocks apiece. Ball State hit .183 for the match recording 37 kills against 17 errors in 109 swings.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday evening at Neil Carey Arena at 6 p.m.