EAST PEORIA, Ill. – Lewis University’s women’s volleyball team rallied from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Missouri-St. Louis 3-2 (25-17, 18-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-11) to win the 2021 GLVC Volleyball title on Sunday afternoon at the Eastside Centre in East Peoria, Ill. The Flyers (26-6) extend their GLVC record in volleyball championships to 11 and claim the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Lewis wins its first GLVC Title since 2017 when they also won rallied to win in five sets and extend their streak of consecutive NCAA Tournaments to 14.
The Flyers came out of the gates red hot hitting .289 with 15 kills against two errors in 45 chances in the opening stanza. They used a 10-2 run to break a 5-5 tie and led by as many as 11 in the stanza after an attack error by Olivia Klank. The Tritons (24-8) made things interesting late running off four straight points to get within seven before Bella Ray (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic) closed out the set with a kill.
Lewis led by five early in the second set before UMSL got hot and went on an 11-2 run to take a four-point lead. The Flyers were unable to overcome that run and weren’t able to get closer than three the rest of the frame as the Tritons hit .471 in the stanza to win 25-18 and even the match at a set apiece.
Lewis held another five-point lead in the swing set but were unable to close it out as UMSL closed the set on a 15-5 run to win the frame 25-20 and take the 2-1 lead in the match.
It was the Flyers turn to rally in the fourth set as they trailed 11-7 before scoring six straight points to take a 13-11 lead on a service ace from Ava Venema (Westmont, Ill./Timothy Christian). The stanza proceeded to go back and forth until Lewis regained control with three straight points. The Tritons battled back to tie the set at 21 after Kaileen Herman and Mya Elliott teamed up to block Megan Schlechte (Strasburg, Ill./Stewardson-Strasburg).
The Flyers scored the next three points getting a kill from Schlechte and back-to-back blocks from Ray and Lauren Stenman (Maplewood, Minn./North St. Paul) and Ray and Schlechte to get to set point. However, UMSL wouldn’t go quietly as Charlotte Richards, the GLVC Player of the Year, got back-to-back kills to bring the Tritons within one and forced Lewis to take a timeout. Out of the timeout, the Flyers scored the winning point when Herman was called for a net violation on an attack attempt from Schlechte to give Lewis…
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