AMHERST, N.Y. - Newly-appointed Daemen College Head Women's Volleyball Coach Stephanie Albano announced her team's 2016 schedule today, highlighted by a pair of early-season tournaments and a 14-match East Coast Conference slate as the Wildcats look to capture the program's first-ever postseason berth at the NCAA Division II level.
 
The Wildcats' 2016 campaign features nine matches against NCAA Tournament teams from last season, six of which will come in league play.  Four additional matches will come against teams who qualified for their respective conference tournaments last season.
 
"We are very excited to go out and compete this year against some very challenging opponents," said Albano, a former Atlantic Coast Conference player at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who recently took the reins of the program after serving as the Associate Head Coach last fall.  "Playing consistently against some of the top teams in our region and from across the eastern seaboard will only serve to prepare us for a rigorous ECC schedule which includes three NCAA Tournament teams.  Given the players we having coming back and a talented recruiting class coming in, we really feel as if the program is ready to take the next step."
 
Daemen is coming off a 2015 season in which the Wildcats went 12-17 overall and 7-9 in ECC play.  The Wildcats were in the driver's seat for a conference tournament berth after winning seven of their first 10 ECC matches, but faltered down the stretch after getting hit with the injury bug, suffering six straight losses which eliminated them from postseason contention.  Despite the tough ending, the Wildcats' win total represented a 500-percent increase from the 2014 season.
 
The Wildcats will open the 2016 season with four matches at Ram Fest hosted by West Chester University on September 2-3.  Three of the Wildcats' four matches will come against 20-win teams, including the opener against the host WCU Golden Rams, a team coming off a 26-11 campaign, advancing to the semifinals of the Atlantic Regional portion of the NCAA Tournament.  Also on the tournament's opening day, Daemen faces Shaw University, a Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association affiliate which went 21-11 while advancing to the championship game of the CIAA Tournament.
 
Day two of Ram Fest has the Wildcats locking up with Philadelphia University, the 2015 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference South Division regular season champions (21-7 overall, 16-3 CACC in 2015), and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference member Millersville University (18-15 overall in 2015).
 
The second weekend of the season marks a milestone of sorts as Daemen hosts the 2016 Daemen College/Hyatt Place Volleyball Classic - the team's first home tournament since 2010.  In addition to Daemen, the three-day event running from September 9-11 features ECC rival Roberts Wesleyan College, Northeast-10 Conference members Assumption College and College of St. Rose, Slippery Rock University of the PSAC and Lake Erie College of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  There will be four matches per day, all of which occur in Lumsden Gymnasium, the home of the Wildcats.
 
The opening match of the tourney pits Daemen against Slippery Rock, and the Wildcats will bookend the day's action by facing Lake Erie.  Daemen's participation in the tourney concludes the following day when they hook up with Assumption and St. Rose, both of which the Wildcats swept in three-set matches last season.

 

DAEMEN VOLLEYBALL 2016 SCHEDULE BY THE NUMBERS
Total Matches	28
Home Matches	12
Road Matches	12
Neutral Site Matches	4
East Coast Conference Matches	14
Matches vs. East Region Opponents	20
Matches vs. Northeast-10 Conference Opponents	5
Matches vs. Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Opponents	1
Matches vs. Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Opponents	5
Matches vs. Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Opponents	1
Matches vs. Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Opponents	1
Matches vs. 2015 NCAA Tournament Qualifiers	9
Matches vs. 2015 Conference Tournament Qualifiers	13
Matches vs. 2015 20-Match Winners	11

The budding regional rivalry between Daemen and Le Moyne College resumes on September 13 when the Wildcats visit the Dolphins in Syracuse.  Le Moyne went 20-8 last year, including a 10-4 mark in NE-10 play to qualify for the conference tournament, but one of their eight losses came at the hands of the Wildcats in a come-from-behind, five-set thriller.  Daemen has won five of the last six meetings and owns an 8-4 lead in the all-time series.
 
A road match at PSAC Tournament qualifier California University on September 17 is followed by a home date with their PSAC brethren from Gannon University on September 20.  The GU Golden Knights travel up Interstate-90 from their home in Erie, Pa. to face Daemen for the first time since August 30, 2008, and their first trip to Lumsden Gymnasium since September 9, 2003.  The Golden Knights, who went 24-11 and advanced to the Atlantic Regional final last season, own a 7-1 lead in the all-time series with Daemen; the Wildcats will be seeking their first win in the series since September 1, 1998.
 
ECC play gets underway when Daemen visits Molloy College (September 24) and Queens College (September 25) on back-to-back days in late September.  The Wildcats split the season series against both opponents last year, winning a pair of five-set matches at home.  Daemen and Queens wound up tied for fifth in the final ECC regular season standings.
 
N.Y. Institute of Technology visits Lumsden Gymnasium on October 1.  The Bears swept last season's series, including a five-setter here en route to a 28-8 campaign.  After falling to University of Bridgeport in the championship game of the ECC Tournament, NYIT bounced the same Purple Knights squad out of the East Regional final, advancing to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight where their season ended against Palm Beach Atlantic University.
                                                                                                                                                                                    
The Wildcats will face an East Regional qualifier for the second time in as many days when Long Island University Post visits Lumsden Gymnasium on October 2.  The Wildcats and Pioneers split their two matches last season, both of which went to five sets, with each team winning on the road.
 
The "Thruway Rivalry" between Daemen and Roberts Wesleyan resumes on October 4 when the Redhawks head west to Amherst.  Daemen will be seeking its third straight win in the series, and their 13th since 2008.
 
The Wildcats visit defending league champion Bridgeport on October 9.  The perennial powerhouse Purple Knights have lost just two regular season league matches in the last three seasons, sweeping all three season series with Daemen as part of their 75-15 overall record in the same span.
 
A break in league play comes when the Wildcats visit Franklin Pierce University of the NE-10 Conference on October 14.  The FPU Ravens finished second in the NE-10 last year (18-11 overall, 12-2 NE-10), and earned an at-large bid to the East Regional.
 
The first round of ECC play concludes when Daemen visits Mercy College on October 15.  The Wildcats swept the season series in 2015, and own a 4-2 lead all-time.
 
Highlights of the second round of ECC play include a tough weekend trip to LIU Post (October 29) and NYIT (October 30) which also includes a non-conference matchup with Southern Connecticut State University (October 30), Bridgeport's annual trek to Western New York on November 5, the Rochester version of the "Thruway Rivalry" versus Roberts Wesleyan on November 11, and the Wildcats' final home tilt on November 13 versus Mercy which will include the team's Senior Day festivities.
 
Daemen will be playing for one of four berths in the ECC Tournament.  The tournament semifinals and finals are each hosted by the league's regular season champion, and the tournament winner earns at automatic bid to the East Regional portion of the NCAA Tournament.
 
Daemen is set to return to seven players from last season's roster, including ECC Rookie of the Year and second-team All-ECC pick Ashley Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster), her sister Amber Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster), a three-year starter and incumbent starting setter Katie McKrell (Webster, N.Y./Webster Schroeder) who dished off more than 1,000 assists last season.  Those players return in addition to a recruiting class that features a Division I transfer, two four-time N.Y. State champions, and natives of Colorado and Romania among others.

Pre-season training camp for the Daemen volleyball team begins on August 15.

For continuing coverage and breaking news surrounding the Daemen volleyball team follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenVB on Twitter.