AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's volleyball team fell to the Wells College Express in straight sets (17-25, 16-25, 17-25) tonight in Lumsden Gymnasium.

The loss moves the Wildcats inaugural season record to 3-8 while the Express move to 11-6 on the year. The Division III member Wells College is a member of the North Eastern Athletic Conference. Wells also features two of the best players in the NEAC in All-NEAC outside hitter Caden O'Loughlin and reigning NEAC Rookie of the Year Robert Patzer.

Offensively for the Express, Patzer held a match high 13 kills with setter Josh Undari registering 35 assists. Defensively, Joe Zimmerman and Patzer both had six digs apiece.

For the Wildcats, Jahari Winkfield (Oswego, Ill.) had 12 kills while Michael Krueger (Canonsburg, Pa.) had 16 assists. Kyle Kon (Oswego, N.Y.) and Jesse Donorovich (Lockport, N.Y.) both had four digs for the Wildcats.

Wells was able to benefit off a .455 attacking percentage for the match with only 11 errors. Daemen finished with an .088 attacking percentage and 16 errors. 

The first set resulted in a neck-and-neck affair to start off until the Express scored five points in a row putting the score at 12-5. Wells then rattled off another four-point run in which the Wildcats were unable to recover from eventually losing 25-17.

The second set resulted in much of the same for the Wildcats with the Express capitalizing on their consistent outside hitters. With mini-runs of three and four points, the Express took the second set 25-16.

The Wildcats were able to take a lead in the third and final set going up 6-5 until a four-point run put the Express up 9-6. After piecing together two and three point runs, Wells had a five-point run to put them up 22-18. This eventually led Wells to take the set and match by a score of 25-17.

Daemen officials announced the addition of men's volleyball in May of 2017. The addition was made possible by a $60,000 grant from the MotorMVB Foundation.  The MotorMVB Foundation (www.MotorMVB.com) is a non-profit organization that focuses on the growth of boys' and men's volleyball at all levels in the United States. Daemen became just the 27th National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II men's volleyball program in the country when it made the announcement, and the only Division II team North of the Mason-Dixon Line.

The Wildcats return to action with four matches this weekend in the Wells Classic Men's Volleyball Tournament hosted by Wells College in Aurora, N.Y. The first two matches will come on Friday, March 1 facing off against the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute at 4:00 p.m. followed by a match against Lasell College at 6 p.m. The Saturday matches begin against Misericordia University at 2:00 p.m. and then another match against the host-team Wells College at 4 p.m.

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