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Coach Don Gleason around this time last year spent numerous hours fundraising so Daemen could afford to have a West Coast road trip.
All those donations paid off for the New York school.
Daemen earned a win against a nationally ranked team for the first time in program history as it defeated No. 12 CSUN 25-19, 25-21, 19-25, 22-25, 15-12 on Saturday in Northridge, California.
Outside attacker Zach Schneider led all players with a career-high 26 kills on a .488 attack percentage. Schneider had 14 of those kills in the first two games to help the Wildcats (12-3, 6-0 NEC) take a two-game lead and then contributed three kills in the decisive fifth game.
Schneider was one of two Wildcats with double-digit kills against CSUN (12-7, 1-1 Big West).
Opposite Cameron Milligan finished with a season-high 14 kills, including having two kills as part of a 3-0 run to close out the match. Milligan with the final game tied at 12-12 had a kill to give Daemen the lead and two plays later had the match-winning kill.
Outside attacker Kyle Zelasko also contributed nine kills and led Daemen defensively with 12 digs.
Despite having less than a .200 attack percentage in each of the first two games, CSUN for the match out-hit Daemen .311 to .297.
Outside attacker Griffin Walters in the non-conference loss had a team-high 20 kills and hit .417. Opposite Kyle Hobus added 17 kills on a .343 attack percentage and a team-high 11 digs.
CSUN also out-blocked Daemen 10.5 to 6 highlighted with middle attacker Malcolm King having a match-high nine blocks.
This victory concluded the Wildcats’ three-match West Coast road trip. Daemen lost to Concordia in the road opener to end its 10-match winning streak and then lost to No. 7/8 Pepperdine on Friday.