AMHERST, N.Y. – The Daemen University men's volleyball team topped Dominican University 3-2 (25-20, 23-25, 28-26, 23-25, 16-14) on Friday night in a non-league match. The Wildcats win their second straight match and improve to 5-7 on the year.

The Wildcats and Chargers both finished with 51 kills while hitting almost identical percentages, with Daemen hitting .151 and Dominican hitting .150 on the night. Tonight marked the fourth five-set match of the season for the Wildcats and their second five-set victory of the year.

IMPACT PLAYERS

• Redshirt sophomore Patrick Mullen (Farmingdale, N.J.) led the Wildcats offensively with 18 kills, finishing with a double-double as he added 10 digs, four aces and three block assists to his stat line.
• Redshirt sophomore Peter Leicht (Brockport, N.Y.) chipped in nine kills on 16 attacks for a .468 hitting percentage, adding five block assists, four digs, one solo block and one ace.
• Junior Jariel Giraud (Orlando, Fla.) posted his second double-double of the season, totaling 38 assists and 13 digs while adding two block assists and one kill.
• Four different Wildcats finished with double-digit digs, with Giraud and redshirt senior Billy Wieberg (Grand Island, N.Y.) each totaling 13 digs while senior Kyle Zelasko (West Seneca, N.Y.) finished with 12 digs and Mullen totaled 10.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• The Wildcats opened the first set on fire, putting together an 11-6 run off six Daemen kills and four Charger errors. From there, Dominican got their offense going and went on an 11-7 run of their own to make it a one-point game, 18-17. Kills from Leicht and Mullen helped the Cats rally off four straight points to take a 22-17 lead, and from there Daemen never looked back, closing out the set with a 25-20 victory after out-hitting Dominican 12-9. Mullen led the Cats with five first set kills.
• After Daemen jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second, the Chargers caught up and brought the game within one, 8-7, and continued on an 8-1 run to take a 17-13 lead after six Wildcat errors. The Wildcats racked up kills from Mullen, Billy Wieberg (Grand Island, N.Y.) and Leicht to close the gap, 20-21, and kept the game alive scoring three points on Dominican's set point, but a Wildcat service error handed the Chargers the second set win, 25-23.
• Dominican scored 10 of the first 12 points of the third set, but the Wildcats responded immediately, taking advantage of seven Charger errors on an 11-3 run to tie it up at 13. Both teams traded points throughout the rest of the set and the Wildcats went the distance with the 28-26 victory to take a 2-1 set lead in the match.
• The Chargers went on a 9-5 run to open the fourth but the Wildcats tied it up after kills from Mullen and Wieberg and two Dominican errors. The Chargers pulled ahead to a 15-11 advantage, but again the Wildcats came back to tie it up late, 23-23. Dominican would get the win after knocking down back-to-back kills to take the fourth 25-23 and force a pivotal fifth set.
• Dominican took an 8-5 lead to open the fifth set, but after switching sides the Wildcats turned up the heat, going on a 6-2 run with a trio of Wieberg kills and one each from Mullen and Leicht to take a 12-10 lead. The Wildcats and Chargers exchanged points but four Dominican errors earned Daemen the 16-14 fifth set victory.

UP NEXT
It's a quick turnaround for Daemen! The Wildcats will host St. Thomas Aquinas on Saturday at 1 PM at Lumsden Gymnasium.