AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College women's volleyball team put on a show in their home opener against visiting Le Moyne College, emerging victorious in a five-set match (23-25, 21-25, 25-18, 26-24,15-10).  The result today marked the Wildcats' first five-set victory since October 29, 2013 versus Roberts Wesleyan College, and the first match in which the Wildcats have won by erasing a two-games-to-none deficit since September 3, 2011 against Oklahoma City University at the Embry-Riddle Labor Day Tournment.

This non-conference win puts Daemen on a three-match winning streak and pushes their overall record to 4-5.  It also marked Le Moyne's (7-2 overall) second-straight setback after opening the season with seven consecutive wins.

Le Moyne would start the match by winning the first two points of the first set.  Daemen would gain the lead back by winning the next four-out-of-five points, triggering a back-and-forth set as no team had a run that lasted longer than four points.  Hitting errors were the downfall for the Wildcats in the frame, as Le Moyne was able to score 12 points off of attack and service errors committed by Daemen.  A Wildcat service error would end the first set. 

The second set began much like the first as Le Moyne started on the board.  With the Dolphins up 15-10, Daemen had a run of four points to shorten the lead to one.  However, Le Moyne pulled through by winning seven of the next nine points to gain a healthy lead. Junior outside hitter Amber Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) pulled through for Daemen by nailing back-to-back kills from the hands of sophomore Katie McKrell (Webster, N.Y./Webster Schroeder), the reigning East Coast Conference Setter of the Week, to close the deficit to just two at 23-21.  The Dolphins would come back to win the next two points and end the second game. 

Senior middle blocker Ye Wang (Beijing, China/Hachioji Jissen), who recently earned her 1,000th career kill, put the Wildcats on the board to begin the third set.  The Wildcats would go on to win the next three points to enstablish an early advantage.  The Wildcats held onto this advantage until Le Moyne won four-straight points to earn a one-point lead with a score of 16-15 halfway through the match.  Daemen would respond by winning 10 of the next 12 points, keeping freshman libero Kailey Ballou Daemen (Eden, N.Y./Eden) serving late in the set by winning the final five points to end with a score of 25-18. 

The Dolphins were on the board first in the fourth set, but Daemen won the next four points with the help of a pair of kills by freshman outside hitter Ashley Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster), who joined McKrell recently in earning weekly accolades from the ECC.  The Dolphins came back to win four out of the next five points to tie the set, 6-6.  Both teams went back-and-forth for the rest of the set.  Amber Drzymala hammered the ball off of a pair of Dolphin blockers to give Daemen a lead of 25-24, which was followed by a Ballou service ace to close the fourth, forcing a fifth set.  

Ballou started with a serve that would lead to a long rally that was ended by Wang with a kill off of the Dolphin block.  A big block by Ashley Drzymala and Wang would set the score to 3-1 in favor of the Wildcats.  Daemen won six-straight points to give them a seven-point advatage, however Le Moyne would go on to win five of the next six points to close the gap to three. A miscommunication by Le Moyne gave Daemen a 15-10 advantage to end the set and the match.

Both Drzymala's had an impressive night as they each tallied career-highs in kills with Amber recording 25 and Ashley putting down 24.  It's the first time that two Daemen players have topped 20 kills in the same match since Amber teamed with former Wildcat Lindsey Nowak (West Seneca, N.Y./Immaculata) with 22 and 21 kills respectively in a five-set loss to Kutztown University on September 27, 2014.  

Ballou contributed five aces and 22 digs while McKrell assisted on 57 of Daemen's 70 kills in the match while adding 16 digs for her second double-double of the season.  It was McKrell's second career match with over 50 kills and she's now averaged 39.2 assists per match in Daemen's last five outings.  Wang chipped in with 10 kills for the Wildcats.

Le Moyne was paced by Andrea Buchanan who tallied 12 kills, followed by Anna Hafoka's 10 kills.  Mikayla Porr (22 digs) led a quartet of Dolphins with double-figure digs and setter Kendall Corcoran notched 37 assists.

The Wildcats will be back in action this Saturday, Sept. 19 as they travel to Albany, N.Y. to play in a tri-match against College of Saint Rose and Clarion University.