Lancers nip New Berlin, tie for fifth at Park

The Brookfield Central boys volleyball team beat the New Berlin United team to start the week and then finished fifth in the Racine Park Invitational on Saturday.

Central beat the United, 3-1, (25-20, 25-22, 24-26, 25-21) Sept. 5 at home.

Andrew Dusing had 27 assists, three aces and 2.5 blocks, Jeff Thurston (12) and Luke Sommerfeld (10) led in digs and Nate Leitermann had eight kills and four blocks. Sommerfeld (six), James Keuper (six) and Tanner Swan (five) also contributed kills.

Central then went 5-1 in pool play on Saturday at the Racine Park Invitational and finished fifth overall.

"We started the day down three players taking the ACTs," coach Ken Nash said. "With that being said, we did a great job. Our pool consisted of three top-10 ranked schools (coaches ranking) - Appleton North (No. 2), Westosha Central (No. 5) and us (No. 7), along with Racine St. Catherine's. In the morning we played great and took first in our pool."

Central split with Appleton North (21-12, 15-21) and then swept Westosha Central (21-17, 21-17) and Racine St. Catherine's (21-8, 21-13).

The Lancers beat Mukwonago in the crossover (21-18, 21-16) but lost to Pius XI in the quarterfinals (21-23, 21-18, 12-15).

Stats for the day were: Dusing (83 assists), Billy Brauer (26 kills and seven blocks), Sommerfeld (20 kills), Leitermann (six aces, 15 blocks ) and Thurston (22 digs).

"We are starting to play some good volleyball," Nash said. "At the Racine Invite we had 10 service errors for the day. That is huge for a team that was averaging 10 service errors a match."

Leitermann was named Central's player of the week.

"His solo blocking was awesome at the Racine Invite," Nash said. "Nate had nine blocks in our first two matches of the day vs. Appleton North and Westosha Central.

"Our team is getting better, but we still need to work on communicating on the court as well as serve receive."