AMHERST, N.Y. -- Four members of the Daemen University men's volleyball team have been named to the inaugural 2023 All-Northeast Conference team, and one Wildcat picked up a major award for the season, the league announced today. Senior
Zach Schneider (Lockport, N.Y.) was voted to be the first ever NEC Player of the Year. St. Francis College Brooklyn freshman Patrick Rodgers was named NEC Rookie of the Year, and Saint Francis University's Mike Rumbaugh was named NEC Coach of the Year. Schneider was named to the All-NEC First Team along with being named Player of the Year, and is joined on the first team by senior setter
Sean Califf (Oak Park, Ill.). A pair of Wildcats in
Cameron Milligan (Pavilion, N.Y.) and
Henry Moffitt (Sydney, Australia) earned All-NEC Second Team honors.
A four-year player for the Wildcats,
Zach Schneider takes home his first major award in his college career after putting together a stellar senior season. As one of the top offensive players in the league, Schneider finished the regular season with 299 kills to average 3.74 kills/set (third in the NEC and 16th in the country) for a .369 hitting percentage (third in the NEC), while leading the Wildcats with 150 digs to average 1.88 digs/set (fifth in the NEC), and ranks third on the team with 25 aces (sixth in the NEC) and blocks (37). This year, Schneider has broken two separate single-match records, first breaking Daemen's three-set kill record in a match with his 17-kill performance against Concordia Irvine on March 15. In Saturday's regular season finale against Saint Francis, Schneider broke the program's four-set kill record after posting 23 kills against the Red Flash, breaking his own record of 21 kills in a four-set match set vs. Mount Union on March 18, 2022. In his final match of the regular season against Merrimack on April 8, Schneider broke the Daemen program record for kills in a single season (the previous record was 257 kills that Schneider set in the 2022 season). Schneider was named First Point/NEC Player of the Week for a record five times this season, and was also named a First Point/NEC Prime Performer five times.
Sean Califf, a 6-foot-5 senior transfer setter for the Wildcats, collects All-NEC First Team honors in his first season as a Wildcat. Califf has made his mark on the Daemen program in the 2023 season. After breaking the Daemen single-season assist record (667 set by
Michael Krueger in the 2019 season) in the Wildcats' final homestand of the season, Califf finished the regular season with 740 assists (9.02 assists/set), while adding 148 digs (1.80 digs/set) and 36 blocks. His 9.02 assists per set ranks second in the NEC, and he ranks seventh in the conference with 1.80 digs per set this season. On top of being the program's all-time assister, Califf also broke the program record for assists in a five-set match with his 57 assists against Sacred Heart on Feb. 19. Califf was named a First Point/NEC Prime Performer five times this season.
Cameron Milligan, a 6-foot-4 opposite/outside hitter, earns All-NEC Second Team honors after a successful junior season. Milligan finished the 2023 regular season with 234 kills to average 2.82 kills/set for a .244 hitting percentage, along with 26 aces, 80 digs and 32 blocks. He averaged 0.31 aces per set, ranking fifth in the conference, and averaged 3.43 points per set, ranking ninth in the NEC this season. Milligan posted 11 double-digit kill matches this season, and tallied a career-high 25 kills against Saint Francis on March 25. He was named the First Point/NEC Player of the Week once this season, and picked First Point/NEC Prime Performer honors twice.
One of Daemen's players on the inaugural 2018 team,
Henry Moffitt, a 6-foot-6 middle hitter picks up All-NEC Second Team honors in his graduate student season. Moffitt has posted the best season of his career across the board this year, totaling 151 kills (1.82 kills/set) for a league-leading .438 hitting percentage, as well as a career-high 63 total blocks, 30 digs and 13 aces. In Daemen's Senior Night in which he was honored for his contributions to the Wildcat program, Moffitt broke the Daemen program record for most blocks in a single season, eclipsing
Jake Couzens' 2022 record of 57 blocks. He ranks sixth in the league in blocks, averaging 0.76 blocks per set, while his .438 hitting percentage leads the NEC and ranks sixth in all of NCAA Division I-II. Moffitt was named the First Point/NEC Defensive Player of the Week twice this season, and was named a First Point/NEC Prime Performer three times.
Daemen's All-Conference honorees will lead the Wildcats into postseason action in the first ever NEC tournament this week. The No. 2 seeded Wildcats will play in the conference semifinals on Thursday, April 20. Their opponent is TBD, as the winners of Wednesday's NEC quarterfinals will be re-seeded heading into the two semifinal matches. The lowest remaining seed will play top-seeded Saint Francis at 7 PM on Thursday, and the higher seed will play Daemen at 4 PM on the campus of Saint Francis. The winners of the two semifinal matches will play in the first NEC Championship match on Saturday at 4 PM.
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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