The Lewis Flyers are the athletic teams that represent

Lewis University Lewis University is a private Roman Catholic and Lasallian university in Romeoville, Illinois, United States. The enrollment is currently around 6,800 students. Lewis offers more than 80 undergraduate majors and programs of study, 22 graduate ...

, located in

Romeoville Romeoville is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The village is located southwest of Chicago on the Des Plaines River. Per the 2020 census, the population was 39,863. It is located in the southwest suburban area of Chicago near ...

(a suburb of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division II level of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA), primarily competing in the

Great Lakes Valley Conference The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Its thirteen member institutions are located in the U.S. states of Illinois ...

(GLVC) for most of its sports since the 1980–81 academic year; while its men's volleyball team compete in the

Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association The Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) is a college athletic conference whose member schools compete in men's volleyball. The conference footprint is centered in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Missouri in th ...

(MIVA). Since it is not a sponsored sport at the Division II level, the men's volleyball team is the only program that plays in Division I. Prior to joining the NCAA, Lewis was a member of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA), primarily competing in the

Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference The Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Its 14 members are located in the Midwestern United States. In many sports, the ...

(CCAC) from 1954–55 to 1979–80.

Varsity teams

Lewis competes in 22 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track & field and volleyball; while women's sports include basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track & field and volleyball.

National championships

Team

Individual teams

Men's volleyball

The men's volleyball team is the only program that plays in Division I, even though they are a Division II Program. In 2003 the men's volleyball team won the NCAA Division I/II National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship, defeating BYU in the final, but it later voluntarily gave back its title after an internal investigation found ineligibility issues that were kept private from the NCAA. This disgrace hurt the program for a few years, but they have slowly climbed their way back into the Top-10 rankings of DI-II schools. The Flyers qualified for the NCAA Championship and participated in the 1998 Final Four. In 1998 the Flyers also won their conference title. The Flyers were runners-up to Loyola, IL in the 2015 NCAA Final. More recently, the Flyers won the MIVA Conference Tournament in both 2019 & 2021. During both seasons, they made it as far as the NCAA Final Four in their playoff push.

Baseball

As a member of the NAIA, the Flyers won the

NAIA Baseball World Series The NAIA World Series (officially branded as the Avista NAIA World Series for sponsorship purposes from 2013) is a double-elimination tournament, held since 1957, to determine the baseball champion of the National Association of Intercollegiate At ...

in 1974, 1975, and 1976 and finished as runners-up in 1966 and 1980.

Club sports

Lewis also competes intercollegiately in rugby as a member of the

Chicago Area Rugby Football Union The Chicago Area Rugby Football Union (CARFU) is the Local Area Union (LAU) for rugby union teams in the Chicago metropolitan area. CARFU is part of the Midwest Rugby Football Union (MRFU), which is also the governing body for the Allegheny Rugby ...

(CARFU).

References

External links

* {{Illinois Sports