CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Déjà vu! The Daemen University men's volleyball team earned their second win over the 12th ranked team in the country on the road, upsetting #12 UC Santa Barbara 3-2 (25-20, 28-26, 22-25, 19-25, 16-14) in the first match of the Harvard Invitational on Friday afternoon. This marked the second win over a nationally ranked team in Daemen's six-year program history after the Wildcats topped #12 CSUN last season. Daemen moves to 3-1 in the year while the Gauchos drop to 3-7 in the first meeting between the East and West Coast teams.
 
Daemen senior opposite Cameron Milligan (Pavilion, N.Y.) led all hitters in the game with 17 kills. Junior outside hitter Billy Wieberg (Grand Island, N.Y.) and freshman Ondrej Arabasz (Jicin, Czech Republic) finished with 12 and 10 kills, respectively. UCSB redshirt junior Rees Barnett led all players with 23 kills on the day.
 
The Wildcats ran the offense through the middle in the first set as the Gauchos found Arabasz essentially unstoppable with the 6-foot-7 freshman going 5-for-5 in the first. Daemen took the first set 25-20 after hitting .423 with 14 kills early on.
 
Daemen and UCSB went on runs of their own early in the second and traded points throughout the entire set. The Wildcats overcame two Gaucho set points and went on to take the second 28-26 with big kills from O'Neill, Schneider and Milligan down the stretch. Milligan finished with six of Daemen's 14 second-set kills.
 
The Gauchos extended this game and prevented the Daemen sweep in the third, winning four of the final six points to take a 25-22 victory. UCSB hit .269 in the set and took advantage of Daemen's 12 errors in the set.
 
UCSB controlled the majority of the fourth set and sent this game to a winner-take-all fifth set after taking the fourth 25-19. The Gauchos forced 11 errors in the set while the Wildcats hit just .103.
 
The Wildcats took a commanding lead in the fifth set before switching sides at the halfway point, but UCSB was not going down so easily, mounting a comeback to tie the set up at 12. The Wildcats went on to win four of the last six points with Milligan and Arabasz coming down with the game-winning block to take the fifth set 16-14 for the win.
 
Daemen will face another tough test on Saturday in #2 Grand Canyon at 5 PM.
 
IMPACT PLAYERS

• Milligan totaled 17 kills with five errors on 36 attacks for a .333 hitting percentage in the win for a team-high 18 points. The senior added six digs, one assist and two block assists, including the game winning block.
• Wieberg put together a career afternoon with 12 kills on 25 attempts with six errors for a .240 hitting percentage. He finished with his first career double-double, totaling 11 digs, and added three block assists, one solo block and one ace for 15.5 points.
• Arabasz finished with a season-high 10 kills with two errors on 16 attacks for a .500 hitting percentage, adding five block assists and one dig.
• Junior middle Maverick O'Neill (East Amherst, N.Y.) tied a season-high eight kills on 20 attacks with three errors for a .250 hitting percentage while adding six block assists, two assists and one dig.
• Fifth year setter Sean Califf (Oak Park, Ill.) totaled 48 assists and 14 digs for his first double-double of the season and added six block assists and two kills.
• Graduate libero Michael Krueger (Canonsburg, Pa.) finished with 11 digs and one assist.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• The Wildcats got on the board first with a big block from O'Neill, but from there the Wildcats and Gauchos traded points to open the first. After the game tied up at nine a piece, the Wildcats went on a 3-0 run after kills from Schneider, Milligan and Arabasz. UCSB returned with fire and kept the set interesting. The Gauchos tied the game up at 15, but a kill by Schneider and a pair of aces from the fifth year outside put the Wildcats up by three. Daemen led by as much as four in the first, and took care of the first set, 25-20.
• Daemen hit .423 in the first while holding UCSB to a .167 hitting percentage. Five Wildcats contributed 14 first-set kills, with Arabasz leading the way with five kills for a 1.00 clip and Schneider following with four first-set kills.
• The Cats kept the heat going to start the second, going on a 6-2 run taking advantage of UCSB's early unforced errors. The Gauchos went on a 7-3 run of their own to tie the set up at nine. Both teams would prevent big runs from there, trading points to the end of the set. The Gauchos took a 24-23 lead over Daemen, but a bad set by UCSB kept this one going into extra points. An attack error by the Wildcats lifted the Gauchos up again, but a pair of Wildcat points kept it going until a Wildcat error tied it up at 26. Daemen would score the final two points of the set with kills from Milligan and Schneider to close out the Gauchos 28-26.
• Daemen and UCSB each tallied 14 kills in the second, but after seven attack errors on 33 attacks the Wildcats finished with a .212 hitting percentage. The Gauchos committed eight service errors in the set, many of them falling short of the net, and the Wildcats cut down on their errors with just three in the set.
• Unlike the runs by both teams in the second set, the Wildcats and Gauchos stayed close throughout the entire third set. UCSB started pulling away late, taking a 19-17 lead over the Cats after taking a 4-1 run. The Gauchos won four of the final six points to take a 25-22 victory to send this to a fourth set.
• The Gauchos went on a 7-1 run in the middle of the fourth set to take a 13-8 lead over the Wildcats off of four UCSB kills and three Daemen errors. The Cats climbed back from a deficit late in the set, bringing the game within three after trailing by five, 21-18. Late errors from the Wildcats lifted the Gauchos up 25-19, sending the match to a winner-take-all fifth set.
• After dropping the first point in the fifth, the Wildcats cruised to a 4-1 point off three big Daemen kills from Wieberg and Milligan. The Cats were in control as they switch sides with an 8-4 lead over the Gauchos, with Milligan totaling three kills early in the fifth and Wieberg adding two of his own. After trailing by five, the Gauchos came back to make it a two-point game, 11-9, and continued with a 3-1 run to tie the game up at 12. Out of a Daemen timeout, the Wildcats went on a 4-2 run, and on set point finished it off with a game-winning block by Milligan and Arabasz to win the fifth, 16-14.
• The Wildcats finished with 57 kills for a .212 hitting percentage along with 13 total blocks, while UCSB had 54 kills for a .250 clip and six total blocks.  
• This marked the first time that Daemen and UCSB met on the court, and the second time this season that the Wildcats faced a nationally ranked opponent. Daemen fell 3-1 to #5 Ohio State in the season opener. Daemen is now 2-6 all-time against AVCA nationally ranked opponents. 

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