AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's volleyball team returned to winning form this evening with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-18) victory over Urbana University tonight at Lumsden Gymnasium.

Both programs are NCAA Division II independents. Daemen snapped a two-match losing streak and improved to 11-7 overall. The Wildcats, who had their program-record seven-match winning streak snapped last weekend, have now won 11 of their last 15 matches. Daemen also remained perfect (4-0) against NCAA Division II independents this year. Urbana, which is in its first season as a varsity program, dropped to 1-17. It marked the second meeting of the year between the two programs. The Wildcats posted a 3-1 win at Urbana back on Feb. 9.

IMPACT PLAYERS

• Graduate student Zach Yerington (Hamburg, N.Y.) posted a team-high 14 kills and 27 attempts for the Wildcats. He also tied for the team lead with eight digs—just one shy of his season high he registered during a 3-2 win at Wells College last month.
• Freshman Zach Schneider (Lockport N.Y.) added 10 kills and 22 attempts. He also chipped in two aces, three blocks and six digs.
• Sophomore Jahari Winkfield (Oswego, Ill.) contributed seven kills, just two attack errors and a hitting percentage of .556.
• Sophomore Michael Krueger (Canonsburg, Pa.) posted a team-high 27 assists for the Wildcats. Freshman John Jaworski (Naperville, Ill.) recorded a season-high eight digs for the second-straight match and also registered two aces.
• Freshman Tyler Chavez paced the hosts with 10 kills and a .381 hitting percentage, while fellow rookie Jack Brinkman added seven kills. Junior Chaz Hafer dished out a team-high 23 assists and also registered four digs.
  

SET-BY-SET SUMMARY

Set One (DC 25, UU 21) - Daemen trailed 4-2 early on, before registering five unanswered points to take a 7-4 lead. Urbana scored the next three points to tie the game at 7-7, but Daemen scored the next two and never trailed after that. The Wildcats held a 16-13 lead when the hosts took control with a 6-3 spurt. A kill by Yerington capped the rally and gave the Wildcats a 22-16 lead. Urbana battled and eventually cut the lead in half (23-20), but the teams then traded points before the hosts secured the set following a kill by Jaworski.

Set Two (DC 25, UU 19) - Set two was a back-and-forth affair early on that featured nine ties and no lead of more than two points for either side. The set was knotted at 14-14 when the Wildcats began to pull away. A 5-0 run that featured four errors by Urbana gave the hosts a 19-14 lead. The Daemen advantage was four points (21-17) when the hosts secured the win with a 4-2 run.

Set Three (DC 25, UU 18) - Both teams made runs early in set three before things evened out and they started trading points. Urbana held a 14-13 lead when the Wildcats ran off five unanswered points. Winkfield contributed two kills during the spurt, and a service ace by Jaworski capped it and gave Daemen an 18-14 lead. Urbana later cut the lead to two points (19-17), before back-to-back kills by Schneider and Yerington sparked a match-ending 6-1 run for the Wildcats.

MATCH NOTES

• Daemen has already posted more wins this season than it did in its inaguarlai season last year. The Wildcats fielded a roster entirely of first-year college players last spring and closed out the year with a 6-17 record.
• The Wildcats boast a 17-man roster this year, essentially doubling the amount of available bodies from a year ago. The roster includes eight returners and nine newcomers.
• Schneider posted double-digit kills for the 11th time this season, while Yerington reached double digits in kills for the eighth time.
  

NEXT SERVE
Daemen returns to action to tomorrow (March 7) when it hosts St. Francis College—Brooklyn at 3 p.m.