No. 13 Flyers Down Hawks In Four Sets

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University’s 13th ranked men’s volleyball team defeated Quincy 3-1 on Thursday evening at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers improve to 14-11, 6-7 MIVA while the Hawks fall to 4-17, 0-13 MIVA.

Lewis hit .647 in the opening frame recording 11 kills against zero in 17 chances. It led by as many as nine points in the frame at 24-15 after Christian Prayer’s (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway North) fourth ace of the set. Quincy fought off the first set point before Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) ended it with a kill to give the Flyers the 25-16 set victory.

Lewis led by four early in the middle stanza but Quincy hung around and were only down three late in the frame before the Flyers pulled away late by scoring six of the final 10 points to win the second set 25-20.

The Hawks came back strong in set three building an early three-point lead. Lewis came back to even the stanza at 13 but Quincy went on a 7-3 run to grab control of the set to take a 20-16 lead on a kill from Eddie Jakubauskas. The Flyers scored three straight to cut the Hawk lead to 20-19 after a kill from Joe Kenzinger (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice) but weren’t able to get over the hump as Quincy closed the set with a 5-1 run to win 25-20 to extend the match.

Lewis trailed 7-6 early in the fourth frame before going on an 11-4 run to take a 17-11 lead. The Hawks wouldn’t get closer than five points the rest of the way as the Flyers scored five of the final six points to win 25-16.

Lewis hit .447 in the contest with 53 kills against 11 errors in 94 swings and had three players reach double figures in kills led by John Davis (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) with 15. Max Roquet (Johnston, Iowa/Johnston) and Mitchem finished with 13 and 12 kills respectively. Kevin Kauling (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) dished out 46 assists and Carlos Jimenez (Miami Beach, Fla./FLVS) had six digs.

Quincy had an attack percentage of .318 with 45 kills against 17 errors in 88 chances and were led by Nathan Lawton with match-highs in kills (18) and digs (7) while Jonas Holzinger had 39 assists.

The Flyers play their final home match of the regular season on Saturday hosting Lindenwood at 5 p.m. Lewis will honor its seniors prior to the match and will also recognize the 2012 team that is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Final Four run.