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Daemen had no answer for outside attacker Andrew Deardorff in a showdown between the only two remaining undefeated teams in NEC play
Deardorff had a team-high 16 kills and zero errors on a .500 attack percentage as Saint Francis defeated Daemen 25-20, 25-18, 22-25, 26-24 on Friday in Loretto, Pennsylvania to open a two-match conference series.
This was the third time this season that Deardorff had both double-digit kills and hit more than .350. The performance also comes after the outside attacker hit in the negative in a near upset against No. 9/6 Penn State on Sunday.
Deardorff led all players with six kills in the second game against Daemen (14-4, 6-1 NEC). The outside attacker added four kills in the final game, including a kill to cap off a 3-0 run late in the game that helped secure the win.
Saint Francis (13-8, 5-0 NEC) through the first two games committed two attack errors and for the match out-hit Daemen .316 to .210
Opposite Nathan Zini added 15 kills. Zini and five kills in each of the final two games and their final kill to the start of the fourth-game overtime set up the Red Flash’s match-winning point.
Daemen outside attacker Zach Schneider in the loss led all players with 22 kills on a .364 attack percentage. In addition, Schneider had a game-high eight kills in the final game highlighted with a kill to fight off a Saint Francis match-point and force an overtime.
Setter Ryan Parker along with running the offense had a match-high four aces. Saint Francis finished with nine aces – five more aces than Daemen.
Parker was one of three Red Flash players with multiple aces. Zini contributed two aces, while middle attacker Nicholas Lynch had three aces.
Lynch also had a match-high seven blocks, including the match-winning block in overtime.
Saint Francis libero Peyton Blain led all players defensively with 17 digs. Blain entered this series fourth in the nation with a 2.73 digs per game average.