Brian Schmidt Powers No. 14 Lewis To Sweep Of MSOE

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – A day after Lewis men’s volleyball earned the No. 14 ranking in the AVCA Top 15 Poll, senior Brian Schmidt (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park/River Forest) recorded a career-high 14 kills in the Flyers’ 25-16, 25-17, 25-18 sweep of Milwaukee School of Engineering on Tuesday evening at Neil Carey Arena.

Schmidt hit .500 with 14 kills on 22 attempts. He helped the Flyers out-hit the Raiders .389 to .136. Schmidt also recorded three aces.

“Schmidt really had a nice game,” head coach Dan Friend said. “He controlled the ball well and averaged more than four kills a set.”

The Flyers won the first set thanks to an 11-1 run. Schmidt had two kills and two aces during the push. An 8-1 run helped Lewis take the second set. Lewis scored two or more consecutive points on seven occasions in the third set.

Senior Casey Bennett (Redondo Beach, Calif./Redondo Union/Long Beach City College) also set a career-high with seven kills on 11 swings. Freshman Yiwei Zhou (Nanjing, China/Nanjing No. 1) also had seven kills on 11 attempts. Sophomore Rudy Brynac (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis University High School) added four kills, four block assists and three aces. The Flyers as a team had seven aces and eight service errors.

“We were able to keep the serving errors to a minimum while keeping the pressure on the opponent,” Friend said. “As a team we’ve been trying to work on that and now we’ll need to do it on Friday and Saturday.”

Lewis hosts No. 13 Ball State on Friday at 7 p.m. the match is Lewis’ first conference contest of the season. Lewis then hosts No. 2 BYU on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Lewis improves to 7-2. MSOE falls to 0-6.