ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's 15th ranked women's volleyball team swept past Quincy in its home and Great Lakes Valley Conference opener on Thursday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve to 6-3, 1-0 GLVC while the Hawks drop to 3-6, 0-1 GLVC.

Lewis fell behind 2-0 to start the match but responded with an 11-4 run to take a five-point lead. The lead eventually grew to nine at 20-11 after a kill from Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian). Quincy fought back with a 7-1 run of its own to cut the Flyer lead three at 21-18 after a bad set by Juliana Van Loo (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs).

Lewis was able to close out the set scoring four of the final seven points to win the opener 25-21. Venema accounted for nearly half of the Flyers kills in the frame recording seven in nine swings.

Lewis never trailed in the middle stanza as it raced out to an early three point lead and led by as many as five points in the set. Quincy made a late run to cut the Flyer lead to 17-16 after an error by Amanda Greening (Metamora, Ill./Metamora). The Flyers closed the frame out strong scoring seven of the final 10 points to win 25-19 and take the 2-0 lead in the match.

The final set was all Lewis as it raced out to four point lead and never looked back on its way to a 25-12 set win. The Flyers hit .357 in the final stanza recording 17 kills against two errors in 42 chances. Van Loo had five kills in the frame while Venema and Natalie Stefanski (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet West) had four kills apiece.

Lewis finished the match hitting .281 recording 48 kills against 14 errors in 121 chances. Venema finished with a match-high 13 kills while Stefanski added 12 and Van Loo finished with nine. Lauren Stenman (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul) had 31 assists and Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) finished with 15 digs.

The Flyer defense held the Hawks to a .125 hitting percentage (30k/17e/104ta). Emily Rehagen led the Hawks with 10 kills and Mattie Norris finished with nine kills. Makayla Knoblauch had 24 assists and America Galvan finished with 14 digs.

Lewis is back in action on Saturday (Sept. 18) afternoon as it travels to Liberty, Mo., to take on William Jewell at 3 p.m.