Match Stats
- #6 Lewis University Flyers def. Grand Canyon Lopes 3-2 (23-25, 18-25, 25-19, 28-26, 25-13)
- Lewis moves to 6-1, Grand Canyon falls to 3-4
- Antelope Gymnasium, Phoenix, Arizona
- Attendance: 848
- Match Stats
After falling into an 0-2 hole early, the 6th-ranked Lewis University Flyers rallied to beat Grand Canyon University 3-2 on the road on Friday – the front-end of a two-match stand in Phoenix this weekend. Game 2 will be played on Sunday.
After losing their season-opener, Lewis now has won 6 straight games – including 4 five-setters. In 2016, the team was just 1-8 in five-set games.
Lewis redshirt sophomore opposite Mitch Perinar tied a career-high with 27 kills on a .438 percentage (27 kills, 6 errors, 48 attacks), and had 43.5% of the team’s kills. That’s his second-straight 27-kill game after putting up the same total last week against St. Francis. Only one player (USC’s Lucas Yoder) has put up more kills in a game this season even once – he had 33 against Penn State three weeks ago.
Perinar’s kills were not only voluminous, they were timely as well. After just 7 kills in the first two sets combined, he had 5 and 12, respectively, in the 3rd and 4th sets, as the Flyers revitalized their chances. He had only 3 errors en route to those 17 combined kills in the two sets.
Ryan Coenen, the defending VolleyMob Player of the Week, also chipped in 15 kills, though with 11 errors he hit only .108.
Grand Canyon had 3 players hit in double figures, led by Luke Turner with 13 on 32 swings. Jacob Schmiegelt had 9 blocks for the Flyers.
Grand Canyon was hot early, hitting .346 and .280, respectively, in the first two sets. But when Lewis turned the tables in the 3rd set, they did so with back-row defense – forcing GCU into 8 errors and a .000 hitting percentage.
Ashton King had 10 kills on .467 hitting for Grand Canyon, along with 10 block assists for a double-double.
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