No. 8 Men’s Volleyball Team Takes Two at Daemen

The No. 8 Wells College men's volleyball team traveled to Buffalo in an epic battle that saw the Express prevail with a pair of 3-2 wins on Saturday, Feb. 29. Neither team held a two-set advantage in either game, but Wells rallied in the first match after trailing 2-1 and took the final set in the second after holding a 2-1 lead.

Each of the three contests between the two teams to date have resulted in 3-2 scores. On Feb. 14, Daemen snapped the Express' seven-match win streak with a 3-2 win, but on this Leap Day Wells returned the favor by snapping the Wildcats' seven-match win streak and extending its own streak to four.

Wells completes February play after a week off with a 10-1 record for the month and an 18-3 record overall. While Daemen competes at the NCAA D-II level, the volleyball team is listed as a D-I independent.

In the decisive fifth set of the first match, the Express led 8-5 when the teams switched sides. Wells went on to get the next four points for a 12-5 advantage before going on to a 15-10 match win. Prior to that, Wells took sets two and four by scores of 25-17 and 25-22, respectively. Daemen opened the match with a 28-26 first-set win and also took the third set by a 25-20 score.

In the decisive fifth set of the second match, the Express were tied at 2-2 before going on a 4-0 run and then a 3-0 run before going on to a 15-8 win. Prior to that, Wells took the first and third sets by scores of 25-17 and 25-20, respectively. Daemen took the second set 25-18 and the fourth by a score of 25-17.

In the first match, Robert Patzer led the team with 15 kills, while Joe Zimmerman wasn't far behind with 14. Both Caden O'Loughlin and Justin Williams added 13 kills each with Williams hitting at a team-high .632. Patzer, O'Loughlin and Zimmerman each added nine digs, while a pair of blocks each came from Zimmerman, Patzer and Cooper Colesante.

In the second match, Patzer had a team-high 19 kills. O'Loughlin and Zimmerman combined for 23 digs with O'Loughlin finishing with a dozen. Zimmerman also had a pair of aces, while Williams added four blocks. Josh Undari finished the day with 85 assists with 42 in the first match and 43 in the second.

The men's volleyball team returns to Aurora to next host Vassar College on Saturday, March 7 with a 2 p.m. start.