Geoff Schneider

Men's Volleyball Hosts Thomas More, Tusculum This Week

3/4/2024 12:33:00 PM

By: CONTACT: Mary Margaret Johnson, Assistant Athletics Communications Director | mmjohnso@daemen.edu

NON-CONFERENCE ACTION
The Daemen University men's volleyball team hosts Thomas More and Tusculum in a pair of non-conference matches this week, starting with Tuesday's 6 PM tilt against the Saints. The Wildcats will take on the Pioneers of Tusculum on Friday at 6 PM in their final home match of March. Daemen comes into the week with an 11-3 overall record while Thomas More is 9-7 on the year and Tusculum is 4-11 overall.

LOOK BACK AT LAST WEEK
The Wildcats split the week, winning their sixth straight Northeast Conference game of the season on Thursday with a 3-0 win over D'Youville, are looking to rebound after dropping Friday's non-conference match in a 3-1 contest to Harvard. In Thursday's win, six different Wildcats tallied kills as Daemen out-hit D'Youville 37 to 19 on the night, finishing with a .400 hitting percentage. On his seventh of 11 kills on the night, fifth year Zach Schneider (Lockport, N.Y.) tallied his 1,000th career kill in the victory, finishing with a match-high 11 kills and just two errors on 18 attacks for a .500 hitting percentage. Friday night's match against Harvard featured a sellout crowd at Lumsden Gymnasium, and was electric from start to finish with the entire match full of back-and-forth runs for each team. Daemen out-killed Harvard 59 to 55 on the night, but the Crimson totaled 13 fewer errors to finish with a .395 hitting percentage compared to .245 for the Wildcats. After earning the NEC Player of the Week and Daemen Athletics February Athlete of the Month, Schneider finished with a match-high 19 kills and was one of three Wildcats to tally double-digit kills in the loss. Senior opposite Cameron Milligan (Pavilion, N.Y.) finished with 13 kills and six errors on 32 attacks, while reigning NEC Rookie of the Week Ondrej Arabasz (Jicin, Czech Republic) tied a season-high with 10 kills to hit at a .318 clip. Fifth year setter Sean Califf (Oak Park, Ill.) posted his third double-double of the season with 39 assists and 10 digs.

POLL POSITION
Daemen remains ranked No. 20 in the Week 8 AVCA/NVA Division I men's volleyball poll. Daemen is also ranked No. 2 in the latest Off The Block Division II National Coaches Poll. The Wildcats have been included in 34 straight OTB polls.

STAT CATS
Halfway through the 2024 season, the Wildcats rank atop the NEC in points (16.08 per set), hitting percentage (.319), opponent hitting percentage (.199), assists (11 per set), kills (12.21 per set) and opponent service aces (1.06 per set), while ranking second in the league in blocks, aces, digs, opponent digs, opponent kills and opponent assists. Schneider ranks second in the league in kills (3.93/set) and points (4.48/set), fourth in hitting percentage (.307) and sixth in service aces (0.37/set). Milligan ranks seventh in the league in hitting percentage (.281) and points (3.81/set), eighth in kills (2.90/set), second in aces (0.50/set) and ninth in blocks (0.69/set). Califf leads the league with 9.6 assists per set and ranks fourth in digs (2.0 digs/set), while graduate libero Michael Krueger (Canonsburg, Pa.) ranks third in digs (2.02 digs/set), and junior outside hitter Billy Wieberg (Grand Island, N.Y.) ranks 10th in the league with a .269 hitting percentage.

UP NEXT
The Wildcats will be off next week but return to action on March 22-23 with a doubleheader at reigning NEC regular season champions Saint Francis.

THE SAINTS
Thomas More comes into Tuesday's match with a 9-7 overall record and will be playing their third straight match in Western New York after trekking up to Rochester to take on Roberts Wesleyan on Saturday then playing across town at D'Youville on Monday night. A sixth-year program like the Wildcats, the Saints play in the IVA and average 10.3 kills per set and are led offensively by 6-foot-6 freshman outside hitter Luke Duncan who is the only player to tally triple-digit kills on the year (103) and leads the team with 2.51 kills/set. 6-foot-11 junior middle blocker Caleb Lipscomb is second on the team with 2.1 kills/set and leads the team at the net with 39 total blocks (0.93 blocks/set), while 6-foot-2 outside hitter Dominic Rossi adds 2.4 kills/set for the Saints. This will be the first time the Wildcats and Saints meet on the court.

THE PIONEERS
Despite just a 4-11 record on the year, Tusculum has played six AVCA ranked teams to open the season, dropping matches at #13 Ball State, #19 Charleston, #3 Hawaii and #19 Lincoln Memorial this season. The Pioneers come into Friday's match averaging 10.21 kills per set with a .189 hitting percentage on the season and are led by 6-foot-4 junior outside Deklan Wingo with 183 kills (3.52 kills/set), a team-high 10 aces and 1.08 digs/set (56 total). 6-foot senior outside Colby Landry adds 2.39 kills/set (117 total). 6-foot-4 sophomore middle Jaden Bramhall and 6-foot-5 freshman middle Morgan Makovec combine for 59 of the team's 82 total blocks on the year.

SERIES HISTORY
The Wildcats are 1-0 all-time over the Pioneers, topping Tusculum 3-0 in the IVA quarterfinals on April 22, 2022.

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.

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