Men's Volleyball | 3/27/2023 2:30:00 PM
AMHERST, N.Y. --
Cameron Milligan (Pavilion, N.Y.) and
Zach Schneider (Lockport, N.Y.) of the Daemen University men's volleyball team have earned Northeast Conference honors for their performances on the court over the weekend. Milligan and Schneider each were named First Point/NEC Prime Performers after leading the Wildcats to split a pair of weekend matches against Fairleigh Dickinson University and Saint Francis University, sweeping the Knights on Friday night, but falling to the Red Flash 2-3 in a five-set thriller on Saturday afternoon. The NEC weekly awards were for competitions taking place March 13 through 19, and Daemen has been included in ten out of a possible 11 weekly conference awards this season.
Milligan, a 6-foot-4 opposite/outside hitter, earns his third First Point/NEC Prime Performer honor this season. The junior posted a career-high performance against Saint Francis on Saturday, leading all hitters with a career-high and match-high 25 kills (5 kills/set) on 44 attempts for a .432 hitting percentage. Milligan added four digs, three assists, an ace and a solo block to his match-high 27 point night. On the weekend, Milligan finished with 27 kills for a .416 hitting percentage with seven digs and two blocks.
On the year, Milligan has appeared in 16 of Daemen's 17 matches and is one of two Wildcats to tally triple-digit kills, ranking second on the team offensively with 168 total kills (2.90 kills/set) for a .290 hitting percentage, which ranks eighth in the NEC. He is tied with Schneider at the top of the team with 20 aces on the season, and ranks fifth in the league with 0.34 aces per set. Milligan averages 3.53 points per set to rank eighth in the conference.
Schneider, a 6-foot-6 outside hitter, is named First Point/NEC Prime Performer for the seventh time this season. Over the weekend, the senior totaled 28 kills (3.5 kills/set) with back-to-back 14 kill performances against the Knights and Red Flash. He also tallied 20 digs, two aces, and eight blocks. In Saturday's five set matchup against SFU, Schneider finished with his second double-double of the year, totaling 14 kills and 14 digs, while adding a career-high seven solo blocks on the day.
This season, Schneider has tallied a team-high 211 kills for an impressive .377 hitting percentage. In NEC standings, the outside hitter ranks second in points per set (4.44) and hitting percentage, third in the league in kills (3.70 kills/set), fourth in aces (0.35 aces/set) and 10th in digs (1.72 digs/set). He has been named the First Point/NEC Player of the Week for a record five times this year.
The Wildcats have been represented in ten out of a possible 11 NEC weekly reports since the beginning of their season. Schneider and Milligan have each been named Player of the Week,
Henry Moffitt (Sydney, Australia) has been named the Defensive Player of the Week twice, while Zelasko, Schneider, Moffitt, Milligan,
Sean Califf (Oak Park, Ill.) and
Michael Krueger (Canonsburg, Pa.) have each been named Prime Performer this season. Califf has been named a Prime Performer five times, and Moffitt has earned it twice.
The Wildcats head downstate this weekend for a pair of NEC matches, first traveling to Long Island to take on the Sharks in a 7 PM match on Friday night, then traveling to play at Saint Francis Brooklyn on Saturday at 1 PM.
Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.
Follow the Daemen men's volleyball program on Twitter and Instagram at @DaemenMVB.
