Outside attacker Deyan Todorov took full advantage of being inserted into the startline lineup for the season’s opening week.
Todorov did not commit an error and finished with a team-high 12 kills on a .480 attack percentage as No. 12 Lewis swept No. 9 Stanford 30-28, 25-21, 25-22 on Saturday in Stanford, California.
The junior from Bulgaria had four kills in the first game with two of kills coming during the 10-point overtime, including a kill to fight off a Stanford game-point. Todorov also had four kills in the final game highlighted with the match-winning kill to secure the Flyers’ first non-conference road win against a top-10 ranked team since 2022.
This was the second consecutive match to open the season that Todorov hit more than .300. Todorov after appearing in 16 combined matches during the prior two seasons was an opening-day starter and helped the Flyers end their season-opening West Coast road trip undefeated.
Todorov was one of three Lewis hitters to not commit an attack error against the Cardinal. Lewis finished the match with nine errors – 10 fewer errors than Stanford – and out-hit Stanford .355 to .231.
Middle attacker Shawn Baggs had six kills and zero errors on a .545 attack percentage, while middle attacker Freder Krueger-Beer had five kills with no errors and hit a match-best .625.
Along with its middle attackers, Oguzhan Oguz finished with a match-high 12 kills. Outside attacker Daneil Haber contributed 10 kills and had a game-high six kills in the opening game.
Both Oguz and Krueger-Beer also helped overcome a late three-point deficit to win the opening game in overtime.
Lewis trailing 24-21 had a kill from Oguz and then back-to-back blocks from Krueger-Beer to fight off three game-points and force overtime. Lewis was able to gain the lead early in the overtime with Krueger-Beer kill, and then setter Diedgo Estrada on the team’s third game-point opportunity delivered the game-winning ace.
Opposite Moses Wagner in the loss led Stanford with 12 kills. In addition, outside attacker Alex Rottman had seven kills and hit .417 in the season-opening loss.
Lewis out-blocked Stanford 11 to 2.5 highlighted with Krueger-Beer having a match-high seven blocks. Oguz and Haber each contributed four blocks in the victory.