ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The No. 10 Lewis Flyer men's volleyball team concludes its home schedule hosting a pair of top 15 teams this weekend at Neil Carey Arena. The Flyers (14-8, 5-3 MIVA) host No. 15 Fort Wayne (15-7, 3-5 MIVA) at 7 p.m. on Thursday night and then host No. 11 Ball State (13-9, 6-2 MIVA) at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Lewis currently sits in fourth place in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association standings and trails Ohio State and Ball State by a match in the standings. The Flyers currently have a two-match lead over the Mastodons and McKendree for the fourth spot. The top four teams will host quarterfinal matches in the MIVA postseason tournament beginning on April 14.
Thursday night's match is Lewis Staff and Faculty Appreciation night with all Lewis Staff and Faculty admitted for free and any member in attendance will receive a free concession voucher. Saturday night's match will be senior night with the team honoring its lone senior,
Tom Beckmann (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis University High), prior to the start of the match.
Lewis looks to bounce back after having its 12-match home winning streak snapped by Loyola last Saturday. The Flyers hit .278 for the match but had a tough time slowing down the Rambler attack as they hit .432 for the contest.
Ryan Coenen (Franklin, WI/Franklin) led Lewis with 13 kills in the match while
Julian Moses (Atlanta, GA/Atlanta International School) and
Tyler Mitchem (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) added eight and seven kills respectively.
Coenen and Mitchem are each ranked in the top five in a couple of different MIVA categories. Coenen is third in the league in kills per set (3.62) and aces per set (0.42) while Mitchem is second in hitting percentage at .418 percent and third in blocks per set (1.14).
ABOUT FORT WAYNE: The Mastodons have lost three of their last four heading into Thursday's contest at Lewis. The 'Dons dropped a five-set match to Ball State last Wednesday at home and then fell to the Cardinals in straight sets on the road on Saturday.
Pelegrin Vargas leads a balanced offensive attack for Fort Wayne averaging 3.74 kills per set. Colton Stone is contributing 2.92 kills per set and Tony Price is adding 2.05 kills/set. Michael Keegan is the team's primary setter dishing out 9.61 assists per set. On the defensive side of the ball, Richie Diedrich and Tomas Gago lead the way on the front line averaging 0.94 and 0.93 blocks per set respectively. Keegan leads the way on the back line with 2.30 digs per set.
ABOUT BALL STATE: The Cardinals bounced back from 1-2 trip to California with back-to-back wins over Fort Wayne last week. BSU rallied from 2-1 win deficit to defeat the Mastodons last Wednesday winning the last two sets 25-22 and 25-10. The Cardinals hit .283 in the final two frames while holding the 'Dons to a .113 attack percentage in the last two sets. On Saturday, Ball State hit .280 for the match and held Fort Wayne to an attack percentage of .160. Matt Szews finished with a match-high 13 kills while Matt Walsh added seven kills.
The Cardinals are hitting .237 as a team and have five players averaging over 2.00 kills per set led by Szews with 2.86 and Blake Reardon is adding 2.74 kills per set. Jake Romano is the team's primary setter handing out 8.75 assists per set while on the defensive side of the ball Walsh leads the way on the front line with 1.19 blocks per set and on the back line Mitch Weiler is averaging 2.03 digs per set.
