Jan. 16, 2008

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - The Lewis University men's volleyball program begins the home portion of their schedule this weekend when they host Lees-McRae on Friday and No. 1 BYU on Saturday night. The match with BYU will be webcasted online.

The Flyers split their first two matches of the season last weekend. Lewis fell at No. 3 Penn State on Friday night 3-1 (30-28, 28-30, 30-26, 30-22). The Flyers won game two and had game one tied at 28 till Penn State took the final two points. Trailing 21-17 in game three, the Flyers used a 3-0 run to get within one point of the Nittany Lions at 21-20. But Penn State regrouped and pulled away with a 5-2 run to take game three and eventually the match. Senior outside hitter Jared Dayton lived up to his preseason all-conference honor by notching 21 kills against Penn State.

Lewis bounced back with a 3-0 (30-21, 32-30, 30-26) victory over St. Francis (Pa.) the following night. The Flyers out-hit (.256 to .167) and out-blocked (8.5 to 7.0) St. Francis. Lewis used a 12-4 run in game three to pull away and earn their first victory of the season.

Now the Flyers turn their attention to Lees-McRae. The Bobcats went 5-7 as an independent in Division II last season and open the 2008 season against Lewis. The two teams have one common tie. Lewis transfer junior Andy Frontz played with Lees-McRae's Dane Jensen at Grossmont Community College last season. The two helped lead Grossmont to a 13-5 record in 2007.

On Saturday No. 1 BYU comes to Neil Carey Arena. This will be the first visit by a No. 1 team to Neil Carey Arena since Pepperdine came to Romeoville in 2004. It will be only the third visit by a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation to Lewis. Other than Pepperdine's visit in 2004, Pacific visited in 2005.

BYU opened the season last weekend with two victories over UC-San Diego. The Cougars are led by All-Americans Russell Holmes and Ivan Perez. Last season the Cougars finished ranked No. 4 with a 23-6 record.

The Flyers have a track record of playing ranked teams strong. Last season the Flyers rallied from down 2-1 and fought off three match points to upset No. 12 Loyola on the road. Lewis then took No. 7 Ohio State and No. 15 Ball State to five games.

For fans that can't make it to Neil Carey Arena this weekend the BYU match will be webcasted online and both matches will have live stats on LewisFlyers.com. Fans wishing to watch the BYU game can click here.