ROMEOVILLE, ILL. - The Lindenwood Men's Volleyball team (18-5, 9-4 MIVA) fell in three sets on the road at #16 Lewis on Thursday evening. The Lions hit .210 in the match which was their fourth lowest hitting percentage of the season.
Luke Kraft led the Lions with 11 kills and has recorded 10 or more kills in four straight matches played.
The Flyers started off the first set by taking a 13-6 lead behind a 12-3 run after the Lions had started off with an early 3-1 lead behind kills from Kraft and
Caden Whiteside.
Jake Schreiner ended the Lewis run with a kill and
Amir Grant added a service ace to cut the deficit down to 13-9, but Lewis went on their second big run of the set and grabbed an 18-9 lead. The Flyers limited the Lions to a hitting percentage of .080 in the first set, while hitting .563 and took the opening set by a final score of 25-17. In the middle set, Lindenwood trailed 7-4 early on, but Kraft and Grant had back-to-back kills following a 3-1 run by the Flyers to even the set at 7-7. Both squads would then trade the next several points until the Flyers went on a 6-1 run in the middle of the second set to take a four point lead at 17-13. The Lions responded to the run by Lewis with a 4-0 run of their own to tie the set at 17 behind kills from Schreiner, Kraft, and Grant. LU was able to grab a lead at 21-19 after
Caden Whiteside had back-to-back kills and Grant capped off another 4-0 run with another kill late in the second. However, Lewis closed out the set on a 6-2 run and took a two set lead with a 25-23 win in the middle frame despite Lindenwood outhitting the Flyers .464 to .300.
In the third and final set, Lewis seized control of the set early and never looked back as they started the set on a 11-3 run. The Lions cut the deficit down to five later in the set after
Luke Kraft picked up his 11th kill of the match and Lewis committed three straight attack errors, but the early deficit was too much for Lindenwood to overcome as Lewis completed the sweep by winning the third set by a score of 25-17.
The Lions will finish their road trip on Saturday night as they will take on #9 Loyola Chicago at 5 p.m. CT. The match against the Ramblers will be streamed on ESPN+.
