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Daemen University Athletics

Western New York's Premier Division II Team
Fearless, Integrity, Effort, Respect, Commitment, Excitement
MVB_team celebration vs Princeton 2023
3
Winner Daemen Daemen 4-1,0-0 NEC
1
Harvard HU 3-4,0-0 EIVA
Winner
Daemen Daemen
4-1,0-0 NEC
3
Final
1
Harvard HU
3-4,0-0 EIVA
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Daemen Daemen 25 19 25 37 (3)
Harvard HU 15 25 17 35 (1)

Game Recap: Men's Volleyball | | CONTACT: Mary Margaret Johnson, Assistant Athletics Communications Director | mmjohnso@daemen.edu

Men's Volleyball Outlasts Harvard In Friday Night Takedown

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The Daemen University men's volleyball team outlasted Harvard on Friday night, taking down the Crimson 3-1 (25-15, 19-25, 25-17, 37-35) in a four-set thriller on Harvard's home court. Daemen moves to 4-1 on the season, and has only dropped five total sets on the year. Harvard drops to 3-4. 

The Wildcats narrowly out-killed Harvard 54-53 in the match, and finished with a .336 hitting percentage. The dominant Wildcat duo of senior outside hitter Zach Schneider (Lockport, N.Y.) and junior opposite Cameron Milligan (Pavilion, N.Y.) combined for 37 of Daemen's total kills in the match. Harvard sophomore outside hitter Kade McGovern led all hitters with 20 kills on the day.

Daemen wraps up its Massachusetts road trip with a noon match against American International on Saturday. The Wildcats and Yellowjackets meet for the second time in two weeks.  

IMPACT PLAYERS
  • Zach Schneider returned to the lineup against the Crimson and tallied a season-high 19 kills (4.75 kills per set) on 34 attacks for a .412 hitting percentage. The senior outside hitter added two aces, an assist and a dig. Schneider led the Wildcats with 21 points.
  • Cameron Milligan totaled a career-high 18 kills (4.5 kills per set) for a .400 hitting percentage, as well as two aces, an assisted block and three digs for a season-high 20.5 points. 
  • Senior setter Sean Califf (Oak Park, Ill.) finished with 40 assists (10 assists per set) and added five kills for a .625 hitting percentage. Califf totaled two aces, a solo block, three assisted blocks and a team-high six digs. 
  • Senior defensive specialist John Jaworski (Naperville, Ill.) was on the receiving end of a season-high 37 serves. He finished with five digs and four assists in the match. 
  • Daemen's block leader middle hitter Henry Moffitt (Sydney, Australia) totaled a season-high four assisted blocks against Harvard. Moffitt tallied two kills, an assist and a dig.
GAME NOTES
  • Daemen's 37-points in the fourth set mark the most single set points in program history.
  • The Wildcats have now beaten Harvard in both matchups that the two teams have faced off. Daemen beat Harvard 3-1 at Lumsden Gymnasium in the first ever match between the Wildcats and the Crimson on Jan. 16, 2020.
  • Seven Wildcats tallied kills against the Crimson. 
  • Daemen dominated the first set, tallying a .474 hitting percentage on 11 kills and taking advantage of Harvard's 8 attack errors. The Wildcats held the Crimson to just 15 points in the first set, marking the second-lowest points allowed in a set on the season (AIC totaled just 12 points in the second set on Jan. 21). 
  • Down early in the second, the Wildcats climbed back with one, 8-9, but Harvard then went on an 8-4 run and held off Daemen's streaky runs throughout the rest of the set. Crimson tied the game up at one a piece with a 25-19 second set victory.
  • The errors were flying for both teams in the third set. Harvard tallied seven attack errors and four service errors in the set, while Daemen finished with just three attack errors but five service errors in the third. The Wildcats and Crimson each totaled 10 kills, but Daemen earned a .304 hitting percentage compared to just .136 for the Crimson in the third.
  • After Harvard tied the game up at 1-1 in the third, Daemen started scoring and never looked back. The Wildcats led by five points for the majority of the third set, and rounded out the set on a 6-2 run, including the set-winning kill by Milligan. Daemen won the third 25-17. 
  • The 37-35 fourth saw grit and determination from both sides for the highest-scoring set in Daemen program history. Harvard had as much as a 19-13 lead in the set, but the Wildcats put together a 6-2 run to make it a two-point game, 21-19, before Harvard took a timeout. Califf finished aced a serve to tie the game up at 24, then Daemen took the 25-24 lead after a Harvard attack error. From there, the Wildcats and Crimson traded points, with neither team able to get that two-point victory over the other until Schneider and senior middle hitter Jake Couzens (Hamburg, N.Y.) recorded back-to-back kills to win the fourth set 37-35, and finish the match with a 3-1 win. 
  • Couzens, Moffitt and Califf each tallied four total blocks on the day.
  • Daemen accepted an invitation to join the Northeast Conference back in May, marking a significant stride for the program which has competed as an NCAA Division I-II independent since its inception in 2019. With support from the First Point Volleyball Foundation, the NEC announced men's volleyball as the league's 25th championship sport in September of 2021.
  • The Wildcats were picked to finish fourth in the NEC men's volleyball preseason poll.
  • Daemen is ranked seventh in in the latest Off The Block Division II Coaches Poll of the 2023 season.
  • The Wildcats are now 39-9 in their last 47 matches, a span that dates back to February 2020. 
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.
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