ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's 15th ranked women's volleyball team had three players finish in double figures in kills and were led by
Natalie Stefanski's (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet West) career-high 20 kills in its 3-1 (25-16, 24-26, 25-19, 25-13) win at William Jewell in Liberty, Mo., on Saturday afternoon. The Flyers improve to 7-3, 2-0 GLVC while the Cardinals are now 4-6, 0-2 GLVC.
Lewis opened the match scoring eight of the first 10 points and wouldn't trail in the set. William Jewell cut the Flyer lead to 10-7 after an error but wouldn't get any closer as Lewis put the set away with an 8-4 run to extend its lead to seven. The Flyers hit .257 in the stanza and were led by
Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) who had seven kills in eight swings.
The second frame saw seven ties and two lead changes. The Cardinals led by as many as four points in the stanza at 18-14 but Lewis fought back to even the set at 24 when Stefanski and Venema blocked Bella LaPorta. Lewis was unable to retake the lead as WJC got back-to-back kills from Lily Johnson to take the set 26-24.
The Flyers used a 6-0 run to break a 4-4 tie in set three and wouldn't trail the remainder of the stanza. The Cardinals fought back closing to within 14-13 on a kill from LaPorta but
Lewis answered back scoring eight of the next 12 points to grab a 22-17 lead on a Stefanski kill. The Flyers hit .297 in set three and were led by Stefanski and
Megan Schlechte (Strasburg, Ill./Stewardson-Strasburg) with six kills apiece.
The final set was all Lewis as it .410 recording 20 kills against four errors in 39 swings. Schlechte and Stefanski combined for 15 of those kills. The Flyers closed the match on a 12-4 run to win 25-13.
Lewis hit .232 for the contest recording 65 kills against 26 errors in 168 chances. Joining Stefanski in double figures was Schlechte with 18 kills while Venema added 16 kills.
Lauren Stenman (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul) had 41 assists in the contest while
Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) led the way with a match-high 31 digs.
The Flyer defense held William Jewell to a .104 hitting percentage (35 kills/20 errors/144 total attacks) for the match. LaPorta and Katy Garrison led the Cardinals with eight kills apiece. Hannah Cope handed out 15 assists and Jordan Collard had 30 digs.
Lewis is back at home next Friday (Sept. 24) hosting McKendree at 7 p.m. at Neil Carey Arena.
