Men's Volleyball To Play Roberts Wesleyan Twice This Week

4/3/2024 1:44:00 PM

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

DOUBLE TROUBLE
The Daemen University men's volleyball team will play its final two non-conference matches of the season against first-year program Roberts Wesleyan this week, first taking on the Redhawks in Rochester on Thursday evening then hosting Roberts on Saturday at 4 PM. The Wildcats come into this week's matches with a 14-6 overall record and 7-3 record in Northeast Conference play, while Roberts Wesleyan sits at 7-13 on the year and 2-3 in East Coast Conference matches.

SPLIT WEEK
The Wildcats went 1-1 in NEC play this past weekend. Daemen dropped their third straight conference match on Friday night in a 3-1 loss at LIU for their first regular season loss against the Sharks. With the win, LIU moved up in the NEC standings and currently sits tied with the Wildcats for second place. Daemen fifth year outside hitter Zach Schneider (Lockport, N.Y.) and senior opposite Cameron Milligan (Pavilion, N.Y.) combined for 35 of Daemen's 56 kills in the loss, with Schneider tallying 20 kills and 10 digs for his first double-double of the season while Milligan hit 15 kills on 31 attacks for a .323 hitting percentage. Middles Maverick O'Neill (East Amherst, N.Y.) and Ondrej Arabasz (Jicin, Czech Republic) each totaled seven kills on the night, and fifth year setter Sean Califf (Oak Park, Ill.) totaled 48 assists, four kills, seven digs and four block assists on the night. The Wildcats got back on track in Saturday's match up at FDU, sweeping the Knights 3-0 to snap their three-match skid. Milligan led the Wildcats with 12 of Daemen's 31 kills in the win, while Schneider added seven kills on 10 attacks to hit .600 on the day and Arabasz added five kills on 10 assists for a .500 hitting percentage. The Cats owned the match up at the net, out-blocking FDU 13 to two, with six Wildcats combining for 23 block assists. O'Neill led the way for Daemen with seven block assists and Schneider added six.

WEEKLY HONORS
After each totaled 27 kills this weekend, Milligan and Schneider both earned NEC Prime Performer honors. Milligan averaged 3.8 kills per set for a .379 hitting percentage and added 11 digs, 5 block assists and one ace. Schneider picked up NEC weekly honors for the seventh time this season after finishing with 27 kills for a .462 hitting percentage, 15 digs and nine blocks on the week.

ZACH ATTACK
As the reigning NEC Player of the Year, Schneider has continued to shine in his fifth year. The opposite leads the Wildcats offensively with 257 kills on the year and ranks third in the conference and sixth in NCAA Division I-II men's volleyball with 4.02 kills per set. Ranking third in the league and eighth in the nation with 4.60 points per set, Schneider is second on the team behind Milligan with 23 aces (seventh in the NEC with 0.36 aces/set) and ranks third on the team in digs (85 total, 1.33 digs/set) and fourth with 26 total blocks on the year. As Daemen's record-holder in kills, kills/set, points, points/set, service aces/set, digs and digs/set, the fifth year has four more regular season games left to play before leading the Wildcats back to the NEC Tournament for the second consecutive season.

ONDREJ AT THE NET
After putting up big numbers in his stellar freshman season, Arabasz is just one block away from tying the program's single-season block record (64), set last year by graduate student Henry Moffitt. Arabasz leads the Wildcats at the net with 63 total blocks and ranks third in the league with 0.93 blocks per set after playing in 68 of Daemen's 69 sets this season and totaling 10 solo blocks and 53 assisted blocks. He has posted multiple blocks in 17 of Daemen's 20 matches on the year, and has the Wildcats ranked second in the NEC in blocks. The freshman ranks third on the team in kills (109) and leads the team with a .466 hitting percentage.

CAN YOU DIG IT
The Wildcats sit at the top of the NEC averaging 9.20 digs per set on the year. Califf leads the Wildcats with 124 digs and ranks sixth in the NEC with 1.97 digs/set, and graduate libero Michael Krueger (Canonsburg, Pa.) ranks second on the team with 116 total digs and ranks third in the conference with 2.37 digs/set. In three of their last four matches, the Wildcats have totaled 40+ digs this season, finishing with 49 and 41 in the doubleheader against Saint Francis and 46 against LIU. The Wildcats boast 10 players that have tallied double-digit digs in matches on the year, with Califf leading the way with four 10+ dig matches, Krueger and junior outside hitter Billy Wieberg (Grand Island, N.Y.) each with two, and Schneider and sophomore libero Kyle Zelasko (West Seneca, N.Y.) each finishing with one 10+ dig match.

UP NEXT
The Wildcats round out the regular season at home next weekend when they play host to Sacred Heart and Merrimack at Lumsden Gymnasium.

THE REDHAWKS
Roberts Wesleyan comes into this weekend's matches with a 7-13 overall record and 2-3 record in the inaugural ECC season. Playing in their first season, the Redhawks are averaging 10.2 kills per set, 8.9 digs per set and 1.7 blocks per set. Roberts is led by a pair of local Rochester freshmen in 6-foot-3 opposite Griffin Monrad and 6-foot-4 middle Paul Fillion who total 106 and 105 kills, respectively. Fillion leads the Redhawks with 2.44 kills per set with a .393 hitting percentage, while Monrad has a team-high 19 service aces on the year. 6-foot-3 sophomore middle Noah Liousfi has 37 blocks (0.90 blocks/set) and Moises Jimenez ranks fifth in the nation with 2.58 digs per set. This will be the first ever matchup between these two teams.

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.

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