Albany, N.Y. – The Daemen College women's volleyball could not keep their winning streak alive while on the road today in a tri-match against Clarion University and College of Saint Rose in the Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium on the Saint Rose campus. The Wildcats split the matches as they fell to the Golden Eagles in three sets (21-25,22-25,16-25) but came back to sweep the Golden Knights (27-25,25-19,26-24).

Clarion was first to score as the match opened with a big kill from sophomore middle hitter Gabrielle Olson (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland). Freshman outside hitter Ashley Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) answered right back as she hammered the ball off of the hands of sophomore setter Katie McKrell (Webster, N.Y./ Webster Schroder). The Golden Eagles would go onto win the next four-straight points. Daemen brought back the lead when Ashley Drzymala served six in a row while senior middle blocker Ye Wang (Beijing, China/Hachioki Jissen) tallied two kills. Clarion called a time out to break Drzymala's serve and go on a six-point run to leave a score of 11-7 until junior outside hitter Amber Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) ripped a kill to the back left corner. Clarion would end the set, winning 25-21..

The Golden Eagles opened the second set with a hitting error, putting the Wildcats on the board first, yet they bounced back to win the next two points. The Wildcats would score three points off of kills form Amber Drzymala, McKrell and sophomore Rachel Stephenson (Hamburg, N.Y./Frontier) to garnish a single-point lead. Amber Drzymala would earn three more kills off of McKrell's sets, however Clarion was quick to score as well leaving the teams tied at 10-10. Clarion went on to score eight out of the next 10 points to sustain a lead of six points. The two teams went back-and-forth for the rest of the set, but the Golden Eagles came out on top, 25-22.

The gap was widened in the third set. Daemen would win the first four-of-five points, but Clarion took a timeout to gather their bearings and win the next eight points while using Wildcat errors to their advantage. Ashley Drzymala earned four kills to try to close the gap, but too many errors did the Wildcats in. Clarion won 25-16 to end the match.

Immediately after the tough loss, the Wildcats were back on the court to take on the host Golden Knights.

The Wildcats started off slow and were down by five points in the first game with a score of 11-6. Daemen took advantage of Saint Rose's errors and were able to gain a lead by winning six of the next eight points The first set of the match was back-and-forth, while each team possessed the serve for no more than four points at a time. Daemen was down a point towards the end, but a kill from Ashley Drzymala and an ace from freshman libero Kailey Ballou (Eden, N.Y./Eden) would give Daemen another one-point lead. Saint Rose took a timeout to break Ballou's serve. They were successful in their attempt, however Daemen came back to win five out of the last six points to win the first set.

Ashley Drzymala cranked back-to-back kills to start Daemen's second set run to gain their first lead of the set. A huge kill from Wang off the hands of McKrell gave the Wildcats a three-point advantage and a start to another solid run for the team. Daemen was up 12-5 after a shoot from McKrell and a roll shot to the deep right corner from Amber Drzymala. The Golden Knights began to slowly chip away at the gap, but Daemen's tough offensive game proved to be too powerful to corral.

A Saint Rose service error was followed by an ace from sophomore Paige Recore (Pennelville, N.Y./John C. Birdlebough) to tie the third set, 2-2. Each team would battle to tally two points apiece until Daemen regained the lead for good, this time with a five-point run. Ashley Drzymala ended the game with a serve that no Golden Knight could get under as the Wildcats won 26-24.

The Drzymala sisters led the team in kills in both games while Ashley tallied 21 and Amber crushed 17. Wang had four impressive blocks on the day while McKrell added 56 assists to her total.

The Wildcats remain idle until Saturday, September 26 when they travel to Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. to compete in another tri-match against Mercy College at 10:00 a.m. and Bentley University at 12:00 p.m.

For continuing coverage on the Daemen volleyball team throughout the season, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenVB on Twitter.