ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's nationally ranked women's volleyball team turned in an impressive performance in a 3-1 win (25-11, 23-25, 25-13, 25-15) on Saturday afternoon at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve to 9-3, 4-0 GLVC while the Screaming Eagles drop to 7-4, 1-2 GLVC.

Lewis never trailed in the opening set as it raced out to a 9-2 lead and led by as many as 14 points on its way to the 25-11 set victory. The Flyers had 16 kills in the opening stanza while hitting .483 and held USI to zero hitting percentage. Bella Ray (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic) and Juliana Van Loo (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs) had four kills apiece to lead Lewis in the frame while Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian) and Megan Schlechte (Strasburg, Ill./Stewardson-Strasburg) added three kills apiece.

The Screaming Eagles scored the first four points of the second set and led by as many as five points at 16-11 after an attack error by Lewis. After a timeout, the Flyers went on an 8-2 run to take a 19-18 lead on a service ace by Natalie Stefanski (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet West) but Lewis was unable to close out the set as USI came back to win the set 25-23 on back-to-back kills from Katherine Koch.

Lewis never trailed in the third set racing out to an early six-point en route to a 25-13 victory. Seven different Flyers had a kill in the set led by Venema with four while Ray and Stefanski added three kills apiece. Lewis hit .250 in the stanza registering 16 kills against four errors in 48 chances.

The Flyers built a seven-point lead midway through set four but the Screaming Eagles wouldn't go quietly scoring three straight points to cut Lewis' lead to four after an ace from Koch. The Flyers countered scoring six of the next nine points to extend its lead back to seven and didn't allow USI to get any closer than that as Lewis closed out the set 25-15 on Venema's match-high 16th kill.

The Flyers had five players reach double figures in kills led by Venema. She was joined in double figures by Van Loo with 13 while Stefanski and Schlechte had 12 kills each and Ray finished with 11 kills. Lauren Stenman (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul) finished with a career-high 56 assists and Jamie Poppen (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway West) had a match-high 31 digs. Lewis hit .318 for the contest recording 67 kills against 17 errors in 157 total attempts.

Taylor Litteken led the Screaming Eagles with 10 kills in the contest while Koch added nine kills. Casey Cepicky finished with 26 assists while Callie Gubera added 17 digs. USI was held to a .107 hitting percentage for the match recording 35 kills against 19 errors in 149 attempts.

The Flyers return to action next Tuesday (Sept. 28) as they travel to Indianapolis to take on the Greyhounds at 6 p.m. (CDT).