No. 15 Lewis Men’s Volleyball Comes up Short at No. 1 Long Beach State Friday

LONG BEACH, Calif. – The No. 15 Lewis University men’s volleyball team fell, 3-1, at No. 1 Long Beach State Friday (Feb. 23).

TEAM RECORDS

No. 1 Long Beach State 13-1 | No. 15 Lewis 8-7

LEWIS LEADERS

Kills: Max Roquet (Johnston, Iowa/Johnston) (9), Daniel Haber (Remsenburg, NY/Westhampton Beach) (8)

Digs: Haber (8), Tyler Morgan (Dike, Iowa/Dike-New Hartford) (7), Nathan DeGraaf (Cranberry Township, Penn./Seneca Valley HS) (7)

Assists: Morgan (34)

Blocks: Piotr Wymoczyl (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove HS) (7), DeGraaf (6)

Aces: Wymoczyl (2)

SET BREAKDOWN

Set 1: Long Beach 25, Lewis 19

Neither side could pull away in the early going, as Lewis took two straight points with a kill and block assist by Wymoczyl but Long Beach took the next two to go ahead 4-3. Moments later, a kill by Haber and solo block by Michael Sack (Oak Lawn, Ill./St. Laurence) gave the Flyers a 6-5 lead.

Long Beach went back up by a point, but kills by DeGraaf and Roquet gave Lewis the advantage again at 11-10. Beach scored the next point, Wymoczyl picked up a kill and an ace to push the Flyers’ lead to 13-11.

LBSU responded with a 6-0 run to go ahead, 17-13, and never looked back. Lewis got no closer than down three the rest of the set, and Beach earned a kill to take the set.

Set 2: Lewis 26, Long Beach 24

Wymoczyl continued to make a big impact for the Flyers, with a kill and ace early in set two to take a 4-2 lead. A kill by Sack capped off a 3-0 run for Lewis to bring the lead to 7-3 and force Long Beach to take a timeout.

LBSU came out of the timeout strong, scoring three points in a row. The Flyers later ripped off a 4-1 charge to bring the lead back up to four, 12-8.

Once again, the Beach responded with a 3-0 push, but Lewis had the answer and took four of the next five points including three LBSU attack errors. The Flyers’ defense made a big difference in set two, as Long Beach had 10 kills and 10 attack errors in the frame.

The teams later traded 3-0 runs, and after Lewis was ahead 21-18, the Beach took four straight points to grab a 22-21 lead. The Flyers pushed back with two consecutive kills by Wymoczyl, and another kill from Wymoczyl broke a 24-24 tie before a Long Beach attack error gave Lewis the set.

Set 3: Long Beach 25, Lewis 15

The Flyers were swarming to start set three, with three straight blocks as Wymoczyl and DeGraaf earned two each to take a 3-0 lead. Lewis brought the lead to 5-1 after kills by…