ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - University of Southern Indiana Volleyball closed out its regular season in a stunning fashion, beating the top-ranked Lewis Flayers in five sets at Neil Carey Arena. Leading the charge for the Screaming Eagles was Leah Anderson, Katherine Koch, and Callie Gubera, with career and season-highs, which pushed the 24th-ranked Eagles to victory over the No.1 team in the nation. 

The Screaming Eagles knocked off a top-ranked team for the first time in program history with the victory over Lewis. The Lewis Flyers entered the match with a 16-0 record on the year and the number one national ranking since March 3, ranking no lower than second since February 10. In the five-set match, USI went down early in in two highly competitive and contested sets, fighting back to sweep the final three sets and claim the win over the top-ranking Flyers. The Eagles led in the majority of statistical categories enroute to the victory, including hitting percentage, kills, assists, aces, blocks, and points. 

The offensive barrage against the Flyers was led by sophomore duo Koch and Anderson again. Adding to her 18 kills, which was a season-high, Anderson collected a match-leading 23.0 points which marked four-straight contests with double-figures in both kills and points. The Bloomington, Illinois-native added in four aces and played the defensive side thoroughly with 17 digs and two blocks. Koch recorded career-highs in kills and points while hitting an impressive .261 mark on 46 attacks. The outside hitter recorded her fourth-straight match with double-figures in both categories as well, adding a season-high of five blocks, pluse two assists, two aces, and 13 digs. The Eagles' offense went far beyond the sophomore duo, with five more players recording at least one kill. Junior Taylor Litteken hit .308 with nine kills with two aces and three blocks, totaling 12.5 points and freshman Abby Weber posted seven kills with nine points. Sidney Hegg recorded four kills, Casey Cepicky blasted three and libero Gubera nabbed one. USI posted a better attack percentage and kill count than the opposing Flyers, especially with the floor general Cepicky recording 48 assists to coordinate the bombardment.

On defense, USI showed its true colors with five players recording 12-plus digs and six thwarting at least one Lewis attack. The senior Gubera posted a career-high in digs with 38 to lead the defense. Anderson laid out for 17, followed by Cepicky and Koch each with 13, and Weber with 12. At the net, USI set a season-high in blocks with 13.5 and digs with 100 against the Flyers. The block-effort was led by junior Hegg derailing nine Lewis attacks, a career-high for the middle blocker. Just behind Hegg was Koch with five, Litteken and Cepicky with three each, while Anderson and Weber both had two. 

The victory leads the Screaming Eagles into the GLVC Volleyball Championship Tournament with a four-game win streak. The Screaming Eagles rank third in the GLVC Point-Rating-System (PRS) as of 4/10/2021. The top eight teams (via the GLVC PRS) will compete for a conference championship in a single-elimination tournament.

NOTES:
USI Volleyball defeated a national No. 1-ranked program for the first time in its history with the 3-2 victory over the Lewis Flyers. The Eagles also returned the favor to Lewis with the five-set win in Romeoville, as Lewis defeated USI 3-2 in Evansville in January. 

In the GLVC East division, the Screaming Eagles went 7-1, sweeping the season series versus UIndy, McKendree, and UIS while splitting its series with Lewis. USI owns a 14-4 overall record this year. 

USI marked team season-highs in blocks (13.5), digs (100), and total points (82.5) during the match win over Lewis. 

Senior setter Casey Cepicky ranks fourth in all-time assists at USI, totaling 2,835 after Saturday's match. She also set season marks in kills with three and points with 5.5 versus the Flyers.

Sophomore Leah Anderson set season-highs with her outing against the Flyers, totaling 23.0 points with 18 kills. 

Sophomore Katherine Koch marked career-highs with her 18 kills and 22.5 points. Her previous highs were 17 kills and 19.0 points against McKendree on March 26, 2021. 

Senior libero Callie Gubera set the defensive tone for USI, laying out for a career-high of 38 digs in the five-set victory. Gubera's previous high was 25 digs versus Missouri S&T on March 6, 2021. 

Junior middle blocker Sidney Hegg thwarted nine attacks, setting a career-high in blocks. Hegg's previous high was seven, coming against multiple opponents.

UP NEXT | GLVC VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT:
The Screaming Eagles will head to East Peoria for the 2020-21 GLVC Volleyball Championship as the 3rd seed. The conference volleyball tournament will take place over April 16-18.

USI Volleyball will head to East Peoria for the GLVC Volleyball tournament, beginning on April 16 at the EastSide Centre. As announced by the GLVC, fans will be allowed at the conference volleyball tournament but attendance will be limited to 200 per match. Please utilize the GLVC website and GLVC volleyball championship page for further information.

USI will kick off the tournament for the GLVC, playing the the first match of the weekend against the seventh-seeded Lindenwood Lions on Friday, April 16 at 10:30 A.M. (central).

HOW TO WATCH AND FOLLOW:
While fans are not permitted to attend the games, they can watch free of charge on the GLVC Sports Network, which is available both you're your desktop, mobile/tablet devices, as well as four over-the-top (OTT) platforms, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Apple TV (4th Generation). GLVCSN.com is the official website of the GLVC Sports Network, while the GLVCSN mobile app is available for iOS in the App Store and Android on Google Play. Apple users also can use AirPlay with their Apple TV or some of the newer smart TVs. (GLVCSN FAQs)

Follow USI Athletics on Twitter and Instagram (@USIAthletics), and on Facebook at USI Athletics for more updates. 

USI Volleyball official accounts can also be followed for more team-specific content on Twitter (@USIVolleyball) and Instagram (@USI_WVolleyball).