ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's seventh ranked men's volleyball team bounced back from its first loss of the season on Friday with a sweep of Belmont Abbey 25-17, 25-15, 25-19 on Saturday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers move to 4-1 on the season while the Crusaders drop to 3-2.
Lewis dominated the opening set as they led by as many as 13 after
Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) and
Carter Burzlaff (Elgin, Ill./Bartlett High School) teamed up to block Jake Somers. The Flyers still held a 12-point lead but struggled to close out the set as Belmont Abbey scored five straight points and forced Lewis to call timeout. Out of the timeout the Flyers would win the set as Burzlaff knocked home a kill.
Lewis led wire-to-wire in the middle stanza as it raced out to an early six-point lead but the Crusaders rallied closing to within three at 13-10 but wouldn't get any closer as the Flyers closed the set on a 12-5 run to win 25-15 and take a commanding 2-0 lead.
The third set was the tightest of the match with seven ties and two lead changes. The set was tied at 15 when Lewis went on a 9-3 run to take a 24-18 lead after
Jason Gibbs' (Bellaire, Texas/Bellarie) 11th kill of the match. The Flyers had a chance to serve out the match but Gibbs had a service error but Belmont Abbey returned the favor as Alex Winiarczyk hit his serve into the net to give Lewis the 25-19 victory.
The Flyers hit .406 for the match and were led by Gibbs with 11 kills while Burzlaff added 10 kills.
Tyler Morgan (Dike, Iowa/New Hartford) handed out 31 assists and added seven blocks.
Carlos Jimenez (Miami Beach, Fla./FLVS) had six digs.
The Crusaders were held to a .091 hitting percentage and were led by Matteo Miselli with six kills while Riley Mulkey added five kills. Jack Walsh had 17 assists off the bench while Winiarczyk and Kyle Ferguson had three digs apiece.
Lewis heads to Southern California next weekend for matches against fourth ranked Pepperdine and second ranked UCLA. The Flyers will take on the Waves next Friday (Jan. 28) at 9 p.m. (CST).
