AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's volleyball team lost in four sets in its second home regular season game this season to the Elmira College Soaring Eagles with a match score of 16-25, 16-25, 25-23 and 21-25.

The loss moves the Wildcats to 2-6 in its` inaugural season while Elmira moves to 6-6. The Soaring Eagles are part of the United Volleyball Conference at the Division III level.

Offensively for Elmira, Ryan McDonough led the team with 18 kills with Garrett Coleman having 12. Setter Jeremy Best recorded a match high 36 assists. Matt Straney and Ryan Branigan led the defensive side with eight digs apiece. Straney also recorded five blocks.

For the Wildcats, Jahari Winkfield (Oswego, Ill.) had a team high 11 kills with Michael Krueger (Canonsburg, Pa.) recorded 26 assists for his second straight match. Krueger also led the team defensively with eight digs. Jesse Donorovich (Lockport, N.Y.) led the team with four blocks.

In the first two sets, the Wildcats stalled out at 16 points with Elmira winning both sets. Both sets resulted with the Soaring Eagles rattling off six and seven point runs to pull away in each set. Before eventually winning 25-16.

However, the Wildcats were able to rally back in the third set preventing the sweep. Both team battled back and forth with no team getting a three-point lead. The Wildcats were able to separate late at the end going up 24-21 and holding off the Soaring Eagles final two points to win 25-23.

The fourth and final set also came down to a nip and tuck battle between the two until they were eventually knotted at 20 apiece. Daemen was able to score four out the five points to bring the game even. Although, Elmira scored the final five out of six points to take the match 25-21.

The Wildcats struggled with a .109 attacking percentage compared to Elmira's .293 percentage. 

The Wildcats next matches will both be on Sunday, February 17 in the D'Youville Quad-Match. The Wildcats will face Medaille College, who they swept February 9, at 10 a.m. followed by a match against D'Youville College at 4 p.m.

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