ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lincoln Memorial University's men's volleyball team (6-7) fell to No. 7 Lewis (12-5) in straight sets (16-25, 16-25, 10-25) Friday night at Neil Cary Arena.
The Flyers led for nearly the entirety of the match and accumulated 38 kills to LMU's 26 and held a .421-.041 edge in attack percentage. Lewis also committed 16 fewer attack errors (22-6) and tallied 11 total blocks while the Railsplitters had a season-low three.
Dalen Instenes and Julian Moses racked up a game-high 10 kills apiece for Lewis. Jake Walenga pitched in seven while Nick Vander Zanden added six on a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage. Five Flyers took part in at least three blocks. Ryan Van Loo racked up 30 assists and had five total blocks. Walenga had a game-high eight digs while two others tallied seven.
Evan Cory once again led the Railsplitters in kills with eight but had his second-lowest attack percentage of the season (.080) thanks to six errors.
Pedro Carvalho racked up seven kills without an attack error and hit .700.
AJ Risavy dished out 22 assists. Cory and
Logan Kerley each had five digs.
Lewis broke a 2-2 tie with a 13-4 run to take a commanding 15-6 advantage to open set one. LMU never got within six the rest of the way as the Flyers took the set 25-16. The Railsplitters' 10 kills were their highest in any set, but they hit .029. Lewis hit .385 with 12 kills.
Lincoln Memorial opened set two much more competitively and held a 7-6 lead but Lewis took the lead for good with a 4-1 run. The Railsplitter deficit grew to as much as eight as the Flyers used an 8-1 run to go up 19-11. Lewis eventually won the set with an identical 25-16 score to set one. The Flyers hit a match-high .458 with 13 kills with only two errors while the Railsplitters hit .121 with nine kills.
The two teams opened set three tied 6-6, but Lewis finished the game on a 19-4 run to complete the sweep. The Flyers used a 9-0 run to take a commanding 19-8 lead and finished the match off by taking six of the final seven points. LMU hit -.033 for the set while the Flyers repeated set two's totals of 13 kills and two errors.
The schedule does not get any easier for the Railsplitters as they travel to Chicago to face No. 7 Loyola tomorrow night at 8 p.m.
