It doesn’t take a math major to see that redshirt sophomores Zach and Luke Pekol, both math majors, aren’t getting much playing time this season as middle hitters for Lewis.
The 6-foot-9 twin brothers who graduated from Joliet Catholic have played in one match apiece this spring for the Flyers. But they aren’t complaining.
“Our team is super deep,” Zach said. “It’s still a great experience to be able to push our team in practice every day.”
“We’re grateful for the opportunity,” Luke said. “Regardless of our playing time, everything we do is a reflection of where we come from, and we take a lot of pride in representing our family and school and greater Joliet area.”
Off the court, math has been a friend as Zach and Luke Pekol are already making their mark in the academic world thanks to a research project they started last summer examining performance metrics and trends among Division I and Division II men’s volleyball teams from 2024 and 2025.
Since then, they won the Outstanding Speaker Award at the Joint Mathematics Meeting in Washington, earned an Undergraduate Research of the Year award from the Illinois Sectional of the Mathematical Association of America in Springfield and the Outstanding Poster Award in the Mathematical Association of America’s MathFest in Sacramento.
They are also finalists for Lewis’ Stephany Schlachter Award, a scholarship which recognizes excellence in undergraduate work. The winner will be announced Wednesday.
“We spent about 25-30 hours working on it each week,” Zach said of the project. “The reward is being able to share the research with people across the country. That was my favorite part compared to the tedious number crunching and staring at the computer screen.”
The premise of the study is about home-court advantage.
It sounds like a simple theory. Teams do better at home, right? But the Pekols dug deeper.
Stanford assistant coach Matt Houlihan was impressed enough to write an essay in January about their work on his website.
“Their research focuses on quantifying how the home-court environment influences match outcomes by developing a unique algorithm that analyze statistical data,” Houlihan said of the twins. “They employed a mathematical linear algebra technique to develop the algorithm that mirrored the coaches’ polls in ranking teams while removing human bias.”
Houlihan pointed out that the data can estimate possible outcomes plus expected performances and differentials.
“Winning at home is truly indicative of a team’s success,” Zach said. “If teams struggle on their home court, they might not be as successful as other teams. The data supported that.”
Lewis went against the data grain Saturday, though. Seeded sixth in the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tournament, the Flyers traveled to St. Louis and took the home-court advantage away from third-seeded Lindenwood in a 25-20, 25-16, 25-22 upset.
Now, Lewis (17-13) goes on the road again Wednesday to play at second-seeded Loyola (19-7), the same day the twins await the results of the Stephany Schlachter Award.
Luke noted that the Flyers have logged 15,000 miles this year and during the season. At the same time, he and his brother have made side trips to speak to staff and students at Stanford, Penn State, Queens, Charlotte, Northern Kentucky, Lindenwood and Hawaii about their project.
“It’s super cool to make all of these friends from all across the world to engage in this,” Luke said. “And Zach and I learned that public speaking is one of our hidden talents.”
The twins hope to show the world their volleyball talents as well. They have two more years to try and get more court time.
“Were getting expedientially better and it’s only a matter of time that the results will pay off,” Zach said. “When that moment comes, we’ll be ready.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
