AMHERST, N.Y. -- The Daemen University men's volleyball team dropped to sixth in the latest
Off The Block Division II Coaches Poll for week five of the 2024 season, as released on Tuesday morning. Off The Block is a website solely dedicated to the coverage of collegiate men's volleyball, and conducts a Division II national poll released every Tuesday. Daemen has been included in 30 straight OTB polls.
The Wildcats won their sole match last week in a 3-0 (25-12, 25-7, 25-19) victory over NAIA member Warner University on Thursday night to move to 2-1 on the season. The Wildcats came out of the gate swinging in the match, out-killing Warner 30 to 14 on the night and finishing with a .377 hitting percentage. After picking up Northeast Conference Prime Performer honors for the first time in his career last week, junior outside hitter
Billy Wieberg (Grand Island, N.Y.) was Daemen's big hitter in the match, finishing with a team-high eight kills for a .429 hitting percentage. Freshman middle
Ondrej Arabasz (Jicin, Czech Republic) posted a career-high six kills with two errors on 10 attacks for a .400 hitting percentage. The 6-foot-7 impressive freshman added two block assists in the win. Arabasz and Wieberg were the only two hitters to play in all three sets against the Royals. Junior outside hitter
Jake Basinski (Eden, N.Y.), fifth year outside
Zach Schneider (Lockport, N.Y.) and junior middle
Ethan Sturm (Lisle, Ill.) all totaled four kills in the match. Fifth year setter
Sean Califf (Oak Park, Ill.) played in all three sets, finishing with 20 assists, four digs, one ace and one block assist.
Daemen will travel to Massachusetts this weekend, stopping first in Cambridge on the campus of Harvard to play a pair of nationally-ranked west coast teams in #12 University of California Santa Barbara on Friday, Feb. 2 at 4 PM, then taking on #2 Grand Canyon on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 5 PM. The Wildcats will travel to Springfield, Mass. to play at AIC on Sunday, Feb. 4 to complete their road trip around Massachusetts.
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.