Skip To Main Content

Daemen University Athletics

Western New York's Premier Division II Team
Fearless, Integrity, Effort, Respect, Commitment, Excitement
couzens mvb vs harvard
3
Winner St. John Fisher SJFC 8-1
1
Daemen DAEMEN 2-4
Winner
St. John Fisher SJFC
8-1
3
Final
1
Daemen DAEMEN
2-4
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 F
St. John Fisher SJFC 24 28 25 25 (3)
Daemen DAEMEN 26 26 20 18 (1)
0
Alderson Broaddus ABU 0-4
3
Winner Daemen DAEMEN 3-4
Alderson Broaddus ABU
0-4
0
Final
3
Daemen DAEMEN
3-4
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
Alderson Broaddus ABU 6 13 15 (0)
Daemen DAEMEN 25 25 25 (3)

Game Recap: Men's Volleyball | | By Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for External Operations & Communications

Wildcats Split Matches To Close Home Event

Daemen Falls To St. John Fisher, Bests Alderson Broaddus

AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's volleyball team earned a split of two home matches today, falling 3-1 to St. John Fisher (24-26, 28-26, 25-20, 25-18) before defeating Alderson Broaddus University in straight sets (25-6, 25-13, 25-15). Today's matches were played as part of the Daemen quint-match, an event that featured five total contests played at Lumsden Gymnasium this weekend. 

Following today's results, the Wildcats' record moves to 3-4 this season. They've won three of their last four matches. The Wildcats are in the midst of just the second season in program history. 

St. John Fisher extended their winning streak to eight-straight matches, improving to 8-1 on the season. The Cardinals are receiving votes in the NVA/AVCA Division III national poll. 

In today's other action, Wittenberg (3-8) shook off an eight-match losing streak with a 3-0 win over the Alderson Broaddus Battlers. ABU, a Division II affiliate like Daemen, dropped to 0-4 this season with their setbacks today. 


TOP PERFORMERS VS. ST. JOHN FISHER
  • Graduate student Zach Yerington (Hamburg, N.Y.) and freshman Zach Schneider (Lockport, N.Y.) accounted for 28 of Daemen's 44 kills. Yerington powered down a season-high 16, giving him at least 10 kills in three of his last four matches. He hit a team-best .419 in the match. Schneider reached double figures for the fourth-straight match with a dozen kills. 
  • Sophomore setter Michael Krueger (Canonsburg, N.Y.) tallied 35 assists, and freshman outside hitter Ryan Parker (Fairport, N.Y.) contributed a career-best 15 digs.
  • Josh Bigford, one of the top offensive players in all of Division III men's volleyball, paced a trio of big hitters for the Cardinals. Bigford finished with a match-high 17 kills and attacked a .395 clip.
  • Martin Hackford (10 kills) and Matt Beiter (10 kills, 10 digs) also reached double figures for SJFC, and the Cardinals also got a match-high 45 assists from Paul Hackford.

HOW IT HAPPENED VS. ST. JOHN FISHER
  • St. John Fisher never led in the opening set as the Wildcats jumped out to a 9-2 lead, and then held off the Cardinals. SJFC evened the set at 23-23 and again at 24-24, the second of which coming on a kill by Bigford. Daemen responded with back-to-back kills by Schneider to shut the door.
  • Daemen fell behind 12-8 in the second, but rallied to score seven of the next 10 points to pull even at 15-15. The Wildcats later forged ahead 22-21 following a pair of SJFC errors, but couldn't close the set as the Cardinals rallied for the 28-26 win. The Cardinals posted 15 kills and a .423 hitting percentage in the set.
  • Daemen scored the first point of the third set, but never led the rest of the way. A 5-0 spurt that featured kills by David Cerqua and Ivan Lopez, as well as a Bigford service ace, put the Cardinals in charge at 14-8. Daemen would cut the deficit in half, pulling within 22-19, but could get no closer. SJFC's Eric Bentivenga got the final point on a kill, putting the Cardinals ahead 2-1 in the match.
  • The fourth set was back and forth at the outset with six lead changes over the first 24 points. A 7-2 run by the Cardinals put them ahead 17-13. Beiter notched a kill and service ace on back-to-back points in the run. The lead reached 23-16 following back-to-back kills by Bigford, and Hackford's kill on set and match point ended things.
  • Daemen hit just .176 for the match, its lowest since January 14 vs. national power Pepperdine (.153). 
  • The Cardinals posted a .290 hitting percentage, and had 53 kills in the match compared to Daemen's 44. 

TOP PERFORMERS VS. ALDERSON BROADDUS
  • Freshman Matthew Garry (Depew, N.Y.) recorded a season-high 10 kills to pace a balanced offensive effort for Daemen. Garry was nearly unstoppable as he needed just 11 attempts to reach double-figure kills, attacking at an .818 clip in the match. 
  • Freshman Parker Wade (Portland, Ore.) also went for a season-high nine kills, while Brandon Casterline (North Tonawanda, N.Y.) and Jake Couzens (Hamburg, N.Y.) added seven and six kills, respectively.
  • Freshman Gavin Musielak (Eden, N.Y.) handled the setting duties and totaled a season-high 36 assists.
  • Six Daemen players recorded at least four digs, led by sophomore Kyle Kon (Oswego, N.Y.) who totaled five.
  • Eran Shifris recorded four of ABU's nine kills in the match.

HOW IT HAPPENED VS. ALDERSON BROADDUS
  • Daemen finished with 43 kills and just four hitting errors on 57 attempts. The team's .684 hitting percentage is the best in the brief history of the program. The previous record was a .333 hitting percentage in Daemen's 3-0 win over Lasell College last March. 
  • ABU was limited to an -.074 hitting percentage which also represents a new Daemen record. It's the second time Daemen has held an opponent to a negative hitting percentage this season, also doing so last weekend in a 3-0 win over D'Youville College (-.013). 

NEXT SERVE
Daemen will load the bus for its longest road trip of the season thus far, traveling to the Midwest for matches next weekend against Ball State University (Feb. 8), Urbana University (Feb. 9) and Lincoln Memorial University (Feb. 9). Friday's match is a true road contest at Ball State while both of Saturday's contests will be played at Urbana. 
Print Friendly Version