AMHERST, N.Y. – In their return to Lumsden Gymnasium for the first time since Feb. 22, the Daemen University men's volleyball team snapped their seven-game skid and earned their first Northeast Conference win of the season in a 3-1 (21-25, 25-17, 25-18, 25-14) win over Fairleigh Dickinson University on Saturday evening. The Cats move to 10-10 overall and 1-2 in NEC play, while FDU drops to 8-10 on the year and 1-4 in NEC matches.
Led by the performances of a trio of Wildcats hitting in the double-digits today, the Wildcats totaled a season-high 75 points and tied a season-high 54 kills while hitting at a season-high .396 in the win. Graduate student
Zach Schneider (Lockport, N.Y.) tied Daemen's four-set kill record with 23 on the day. Redshirt junior
Billy Wieberg (Grand Island, N.Y.) and redshirt freshman
Patrick Mullen (Farmingdale, N.J.) chipped in 14 and 10 kills, respectively.
Today's victory marked the fourth straight for the Wildcats over the Knight as Daemen moves to 6-1 all-time against FDU. The Wildcats and Knights will close out the weekend series on Sunday with a 1 PM match up at Lumsden Gymnasium.
IMPACT PLAYERS
- Schneider led the Wildcats offensively for the 11th match this season, totaling 23 kills with six errors on 42 attacks to hit at a .405 clip in the victory. The graduate student added five digs, two assists, one ace, one solo block and one block assist for a match-high 25.5 points.
- Wieberg posted 14 kills with just three errors on 20 attacks for a match-high .550 hitting percentage and added five digs, two aces and one solo block.
- Mullen totaled 10 kills on 19 attacks with three errors for a .368 clip along with three digs, two assisted blocks, one solo block, one ace and one assist.
- Sophomore setter Jariel Giraud (Orlando, Fla.) posted 41 assists, four solo blocks, two block assists and five digs in the win.
- Junior libero Kyle Zelasko (West Seneca, N.Y.) finished with a team-high six digs and two assists.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- After the Knights opened the match up 5-3, Daemen scored six of the next eight points off four kills to take a 9-7 lead. From there, both teams traded points to 18-17, until FDU capitalized off four Wildcat errors and jumped out to a 23-18 advantage. Daemen brought the game within two, 23-21, off a pair of kills and an FDU mistake, but the Knights closed out the set with two kills from McFadden to win the first 25-21. Schneider accounted for seven of Daemen's 14 kills in the first set.
- Daemen opened the second set on fire, jumping out to a 10-5 lead then extending it to 15-7 after totaling nine kills and zero attack errors. Despite both teams going point for point to the end of the set, Daemen's lead held strong to the end as the Cats took the second set, 25-17 after hitting at a .600 clip with 13 kills and 1 error on 20 attacks.
- Much like the second, the Wildcats cruised in the third set, taking as much as a 10-point lead, 18-8, over the Knights off nine kills, four from the arm of Schneider. Daemen handled FDU in the third, winning 25-18. Schneider had nine of Daemen's 15 kills.
- After trading points to start the fourth with the Wildcats up 15-12, Daemen scored 11 of the last 13 points of the match and capped the fourth off with a service ace from senior Jake Basinski (Eden, N.Y.) to win the fourth, 25-14 and win the match.
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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