AMHERST, N.Y. - Behind career-high performances from Ye Wang (Beijing, China/Hachioji Jissen), Lindsey Nowak (West Seneca, N.Y./Immaculata) and Amber Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster), the Daemen College women's volleyball team broke out of a funk by defeating visiting Queens College in four sets (25-18, 25-13, 19-25, 25-23) in today's East Coast Conference matinee affair at Lumsden Gymnasium.

Wang led the way with a career-best 20 kills, including seven in the fourth set to help the Wildcats seal the deal.  Nowak matched a career-high with 16 kills of her own, attacking at .517 clip in the match, and Drzymala came through with a career-best 22 digs.

The win evens Daemen's overall record at 9-9 this season (3-5 ECC).  The visiting Knights, meanwhile, dropped their second match of the weekend on their swing through Upstate New York.  Queens (8-8, 2-5 ECC) lost in four sets yesterday at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester and has now dropped seven of their last eight after opening the year 7-1.

It looked as if the Wildcats would make quick work of their guests, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in sets.  The Wildcats dominated the second set, scoring a 12-point win (25-13) while forcing Queens into a negative hitting percentage (-.074). 

But, Queens rebounded to take the third, capitalizing on their best set of the match in terms of hitting.  The Knight hammered home 13 kills in the set and committed just two errors (.306 hitting percentage) to get themselves back in the match.

The fourth set went back and forth early, before Queens jumped ahead and established a five-point lead (21-16) in the latter stages.  That's when Daemen rallied, scoring nine of the next eight points, with Wang figuring prominently in the run, to complete the comeback and the match victory.

It was Wang's 16th match of the year with double-figure kills and the production today came with a position switch.  Since arriving on campus, Wang, a 6-foot-1 junior, has played primarily middle blocker, but head coach Mark Parisi moved her to the outside today and it paid off. 

It was also the third match in the career of Nowak, a 5-foot-10 junior outside hitter, with 16 kills.  She previously accomplished the feat twice last season (vs. Embry-Riddle on Oct. 20; vs. New York Tech on Oct. 27).

The Wildcats got additional production from setters Kaley Vazquez (Kenmore, N.Y./Kenmore West) and Chelsea Turcer (Alexander, N.Y./Alexander Central) who contributed 24 and 21 assists, respectively.

After Drzymala's career day in the dig column, a host of Wildcats contributed to the Daemen ball control efforts.  Senior libero Paige Tilert (Derby, N.Y./Genesee CC) had 19 and classmate Brittany Anthon (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster) added 12.  The setters, Vazquez and Turcer, also reached double figures with 13 and 10 respectively.  As a team, Daemen racked up a season-high 88 digs in the match to keep the Knights at bay.  It's the most digs the Wildcats have totaled since having 106 in a five-set loss at Roberts Wesleyan late last season.

MacKenzie Hamilton paced a balanced Knights scoresheet with eight kills.  Arielle DiCocco and Francesca Indoni split 14 kills between them as well.

Setter Ceren Kilic had a match-high 26 assists while Hamilton led the team in digs with 17.  Indoni added five block assists to her stat line.

The win was an important one for Daemen, according to Parisi.

"We've struggled closing out matches recently," the veteran coach said.  "To put that rally together in the fourth set to avoid going to a fifth was big for us.  We showed some poise in coming from behind, and I hope we proved to ourselves that we can compete and close out matches at this level."

Daemen entered today having lost its last four matches, including three that went the distance.  That streak came on the heels of back-to-back conference road wins at Dowling College (Sept. 29) and Roberts Wesleyan (Oct.2).  Parisi is hopeful that today's victory will help turn the tide for Daemen in these tight conference matches.

"Last season we had two proven closers in Joanna Fretthold and Jenn Karan.  They embraced that role and the challenges that come with tight matches, and that was one of the reasons we were so successful," he said.  "I think Ye and Lindsey really took a step forward today in filling those roles as prominent closers for us.  We need them to have that killer instinct moving forward."

It's a short turn-around for the Wildcats as they'll be back in action early tomorrow (Oct. 27) when they play host to Molloy College in another ECC outing.  The Wildcats and Lions met for the first time in last season's finale with Daemen scoring a straight-sets victory.  Tomorrow's match tips off at 11 a.m. from Lumsden Gymnasium.