Men's volleyball celebrates after a point against LIU

Men's Volleyball Welcomes Penn State In NCAA Tournament Play-In Match

5/1/2025 11:39:00 AM

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

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
The 2025 season continues for the Daemen University men's volleyball team! After clinching the program's second consecutive Northeast Conference Tournament title this past weekend, the Wildcats earned the league's first ever automatic qualifier bid to the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship Tournament. Daemen, making their first ever appearance in the tournament, will host EIVA Tournament Champions #20 Penn State University in the opening round play-in game on Friday, May 2 at Daemen's Lumsden Gymnasium at 7 PM.

YEARS IN THE MAKING
In just the program's seventh year, the Wildcats have now won two NEC Tournament championships and are one of just nine teams in Division I and Division II left competing for the NC Championship trophy. 2025 marked the first year that the NEC, now in it's third season, received an automatic qualifier bid to the tournament. Daemen and Penn State will battle for the #7 seed in the tournament in the opening round play-in game on Friday. The winner of that match will advance to the eight-team NC Tournament in Columbus, Ohio next weekend and will face #2 seed Hawaii in the quarterfinals on Thursday, May 8 at 1:30 PM.

NEC CHAMPS AGAIN
Entering the 2025 NEC Tournament as the No. 3 seed, the Wildcats topped No. 2 seed LIU 3-2 in a five-set showdown in the tournament semifinals last Friday, topping the Sharks for the first time this season. After dropping the first set, 23-25, the Wildcats came back to beat LIU (25-20) in the second and (25-15) in the third to take a 2-1 advantage. The Sharks staved off elimination in the fourth set with a 25-15 victory and sent the match to a winner-take-all fifth. Down 2-4 to begin the fifth set, the Wildcats claimed the lead for good as a kill opened up a 6-1 run for Daemen that sent them ahead 8-5 at the media timeout. Daemen would not relinquish the lead from there and took the fifth 15-7 to punch their ticket back to the NEC Championship match. Narrowly out-hitting the Sharks 48 to 46 in the win, a trio of Wildcat hitters in Zach Schneider (Lockport, N.Y.), Patrick Mullen (Farmingdale, N.J.) and Billy Wieberg (Grand Island, N.Y.) recorded 15, 10 and 10 kills, respectively, while Mullen posted a team-high six blocks (one solo, five assisted) in the victory. The Wildcats faced top-seeded Saint Francis for the second consecutive season in the Championship match on Saturday, and for the second consecutive season, Daemen upset the host Red Flash in a 3-1 win to hoist the tournament trophy again. Daemen took the first set (25-22) but after jumping out to a lead, SFU held on to win the second (25-22) to tie it up at one. The Wildcats went on an 11-3 run to open the third set and cruised to a 25-15 third-set victory and continued their dominance in the fourth, leading by as much as seven, 23-16, until the Red Flash went on a 6-1 run to bring it within two, 24-22. A Maverick O'Neill (East Amherst, N.Y.) kill sealed the deal for the Wildcats, 25-23, as they won their second straight NEC Tournament title over Saint Francis. Leading the Wildcats with 15 kills in the championship match, Wieberg was named the Tournament MVP. Schneider earned All-Tournament honors after posting 12 kills and 13 digs in the title game, along with sophomore setter Jariel Giraud (Orlando, Fla.). Mullen finished with 14 kills, and O'Neill led the Wildcats with seven blocks in the win.

ALL-CONFERENCE CATS
Daemen placed a record six players on the All-NEC teams this season, with two Wildcats landing on the First Team All-NEC and four picking up Second Team All-NEC honors. It marked the most all-conference players for the Wildcats in Daemen's three-year history in the conference, and was also the most players from a single team represented on the 16-person teams. Zach Schneider (Lockport, N.Y.) and Ondrej Arabasz (Jicin, Czech Republic) were named to the First Team, while Jariel Giraud (Orlando, Fla.), Maverick O'Neill (East Amherst, N.Y.), Billy Wieberg (Grand Island, N.Y.) and Kyle Zelasko (West Seneca, N.Y.) each earned Second Team All-NEC honors.

REGULAR SEASON IN A GLANCE
The Wildcats finished third in the NEC in the regular season, posting a 4-4 record in conference play and a 13-12 overall record. After completing a gauntlet of a non-conference slate that consisted of taking on five nationally-ranked teams, including back-to-back ranked matches against #7 USC and #18 UC San Diego to open up the 2025 campaign and then facing three ranked teams in three consecutive matches in RV George Mason, #5 UC Irvine and #19 Princeton in one single weekend, the Wildcats, who had started the season 9-3, came limping into conference play with a 9-7 record. The tough battles did not stop there, as Daemen dropped both matches in their NEC opening weekend to LIU, 2-3 and 0-3, to start conference play on a 0-2 run and drop to 9-10 after falling at Harvard at the end of their weekend at LIU, marking their first losing record in the middle of the season since Daemen's inaugural season in 2019. The Wildcats picked up steam after returning to Lumsden Gymnasium on April 6-7 for the first time since Feb. 22 and rebounded by topping FDU 3-1 in both matches to even up their conference record at 2-2. Daemen earned their first ever regular season victory over league-leading Saint Francis in a 3-1 win on April 11, but fell to the Red Flash, 0-3 in the weekend finale on April 12. The Cats rounded out the year splitting their final series of the regular season with D'Youville, winning 3-1 at home on Senior Night on April 18 but dropping the regular season finale, 1-3 at D'Youville on April 19.

UP NEXT
The winner of Friday's match will face No. 2 Hawaii in the NC Championship quarterfinals next Thursday, May 8 in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State University is hosting the 2025 NC Championship Tournament this season.

SCOUTING THE NITTANY LIONS
Making their 35th appearance in the NC Championship Tournament, Penn State punched their ticket to the tournament after sweeping all three matches in the EIVA Tournament, taking down Harvard, NJIT and #19 Princeton in the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship to win their 37th -- and third straight -- EIVA title. Coaching in his 31st season, head coach Mark Pavlik's Nittany Lions are 14-15 on the year and finished the EIVA regular season with an 8-4 record. 12 of Penn State's 15 losses have come against nationally ranked teams this season. On the year, PSU is averaging 11.5 kills per set while hitting at a .239 clip. Offensively, the Nittany Lions are led by a pair of heavy hitters in 6-foot-3 redshirt senior outside hitter Will Kuhns (313 total kills, 3.19 kills/set) and 6-foot-7 redshirt sophomore outside hitter Matthew Luoma (264 kills, 3.22 kills/set). As the 7th ranked blocking team in the country, PSU is averaging 2.49 blocks per set and have four players with 60+ blocks on the year. Paced by 6-foot-7 redshirt junior middle blocker Owen Rose with 106 total blocks (1.05 blocks/set) and 6-foot-8 freshman middle blocker Gaige Gabriel with 95 total (0.94 blocks/set), the Nittany Lions have 251.5 amassed blocks on the year compared to 235.5 for their opponents this season.

SERIES HISTORY
Penn State and Daemen have met once before, with the Nittany Lions sweeping the Wildcats 3-0 in their first ever match up in January 2023.

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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