The Lindenwood men's volleyball team took down No. 9 Lewis in five sets in Hyland Arena on Friday night.

OVERVIEW
The Flyers started off strong, beating Lindenwood 25-18 in the first set, hitting .636 percent as a team and knocking down 16 kills against the Lions.

The Lions gained more momentum during the second, coming out on top 25-19 and putting together a strong attack as a team. A.J. Lewis led this attack with six kills, hitting .500 and adding to the five he acquired in the first set. Lewis ended the night atop the Lindenwood leaderboard with 28 total kills and .478 hitting percentage, as well as tallying three service aces throughout the match. The junior outside hitter also added five digs to his stat line and ended with 31.0 total points. 

Lindenwood kept things interesting, winning 29-27 in overtime in the third set. Diego Negron had quite the impact in the last two points, getting the kill to make it 28-27 and then the service ace right after to make the game point. This was one of Negron's seven aces of the night, leading the way for Lindenwood in that category. The Puerto Rico native also had 16 kills, six digs and three block assists, contributing strong performances both offensively and defensively. 

The fourth set went to the Flyers with a 25-19 final score, but Lindenwood came back even stronger and won the fifth set 15-9. After a kill by A.J. Lewis to make the score 11-9, the Lions went on a four point run, where they forced the Flyers into an attack error to make it 12-9. Then, A.J. Lewis knocked down two back-to-back service aces, and the 15th and final point came from a triple block by Alex Pappas, Carter Stenmark and Connor Sheehan. 

The Lions ended the night hitting .326, setting .473, having a .821 serving percentage as well as totaling a .989 reception percentage. There were 68 total kills, 62 total set assists (Sheehan accounted for 59 of those set assists) and 13 service aces as opposed to Lewis' single service ace. Lindenwood completed 32 digs, and Sheehan also led the way in this category, tallying seven total. 

UP NEXT
The Lions will take on McKendree tomorrow (Saturday, February 19) at Hyland Arena in a 4:00pm matchup.