Loretto, Pa. – The Red Flash men's volleyball team (5-10, 2-4 EIVA) picked up a sweep against Charleston (4-10, 2-4 EIVA) on Friday night in Loretto.
Coach Rumbaugh was impressed with the performance his team showed tonight:
"This was our best production of the year. We hit .405 with only seven errors and that makes me very happy. I also thought it was Roman's [Szwabinsky] best showing of the year."
Szwabinsky finished with 29 assists, five digs and two block assists.
Rumbaugh was also happy with the play of redshirt freshman AJ Schmidt (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny).
"AJ has done a great job lately of solidifying the opposite position on our team. He is starting to grow into his role and is figuring out how to make plays."
Schmidt contributed seven kills, three digs and a block assist in three sets tonight.
Set One
· With high energy in the building, the teams exchanged points to begin the match, staying tied until 10-10.
· From there, SFU jumped out ahead 13-10, but Charleston answered and went up 14-13.
· With both teams looking for a way to get ahead, kills by Michael Fisher (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) and Brandon Dunz (Lake View, NY/Frontier Senior High School) gave helped the Red Flash take its biggest lead of the set at 22-18. From there, SFU held off the Charleston rush and took the set by four.
· Fisher led SFU with five kills in the set.
· Other set leaders: Roman Szwabinsky (Columbus, Ohio/Westerville South) – 9 assists; AJ Schmidt (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) – 3 digs.
· Final Score: SFU 25, Charleston 21 (SFU leads 1-0).
Set Two
· The Golden Eagles jumped out to an early 4-1 lead.
· SFU began to rechannel its momentum from set one, slowly catching up and reaching a tie at nine.
· After the tie, the back and forth action continued. Then, tied at 12, the Red Flash used a 6-1 run to go up by five.
· With the score 21-16, SFU scored four of the final five points to take the set by eight.
· Fisher added five more kills in set two and Blake Liprando (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley HS) picked up three.
· Szwabinsky added 11 assists.
· Final Score: SFU 25, Charleston 17 (SFU leads 2-0).
Set Three
· The Red Flash started the set hot, taking an early 5-2 lead.
· The Golden Eagles slowed down the Red Flash and battled back to tie the set at eight.
· From 8-8, no team had a lead bigger than one point until SFU went up 23-21, but the Golden Eagles quickly answered to tie it at 23.
· Kills from AJ Schmidt (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) and Joshua Blair (Matterson. Illnois/Marian Catholic) gave the Red Flash the final two points for the set and sweep.
· Fisher and Liprando each registered four kills and AJ Schmidt (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) added three.
· Joshua Blair (Matterson. Illnois/Marian Catholic) and Roman Szwabinsky (Columbus, Ohio/Westerville South) each picked up three digs.
· Final Score: SFU 25, Charleston 23 (SFU wins 3-0).
Box Score Notes
· Fisher had a game-high 14 kills. Liprando finished with eight and Schmidt seven.
· Roman Szwabinsky (Columbus, Ohio/Westerville South) contributed 29 assists.
· Szwabinsky and Ryan Alu (Pipersville, PA/Central Bucks West) tied the game-high with five digs.
· Brandon Dunz (Lake View, NY/Frontier Senior High School) led the match with four block assists.
· Kills: SFU 37, Charleston 35
· Team Blocks: SFU 5.5, Charleston 3
· Errors: Charleston 19, SFU 7
· Attack %: SFU .405, Charleston .184.
Up next for the Red Flash is another EIVA match tomorrow (2/29) at 7 pm against #15 George Mason at DeGol Arena.
