BUFFALO, N.Y. – The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College men's volleyball team had its five-match winning streak snapped as the No. 6 Cardinals fell to Division II Daemen College, 3-1, in a non-conference pairing inside Lumsden Gymnasium. With the defeat, Fisher fell to5-3 on the year while the Wildcats remained perfect at 8-0.
After opening the first set with a 4-1 run, the Wildcats saw the Cardinals return the favor after Fisher rattled off four of five points to hold an 8-7 lead. Ahead by a point, three straight kills from Daemen prompted the Cardinals to call a timeout to regroup with their host up, 11-9.
As the set wore on, both teams continued to trade points down the stretch until a block by
Ivan Lopez and
Matt Beiter staked the visitors to a 22-19 cushion.
Leading by three points, Daemen climbed back into contention and forged ahead, 25-24, after producing three straight two-point runs. Needing just one point for the opening set win, Daemen was unable to put the Cardinals away while back-to-back kills from Lopez and
Jake Baker secured a 30-28 win for Fisher.
Heading into the second set, the tides would shift as the Wildcats claimed a 25-15 win and would go on to take the third, 25-12, to move ahead, 2-1, with the fourth set to follow.
Needing to reclaim the momentum, Fisher jumped out to an early 4-2 lead after
Griffin Stella hammered home a kill, but the Wildcats continued to attack the net and used a 6-1 run to build an 8-5 margin.
As the set wore on, Daemen clung to a 15-13 cushion, but the Cardinals countered with four straight points as part of a larger 7-1 burst to open up a 19-16 advantage. The lead remained in Fisher's hands after a kill from Stella and an ace from Beiter made it 23-21, but the Wildcats scored the frame's final four points to close out the match, 3-1.
Baker led the team with a career-high 14 kills. Stella produced seven kills in the loss while
Josh Bigford, who was named the United Volleyball Conference's Player of the Week on Monday, was credited with five kills over two sets.
Dylan Urbanski handed out 30 assists and Beiter finished with five digs.
The Cardinals will jump back into UVC play at 7 p.m. on Friday when they travel to Elmira to take on the Soaring Eagles.
