AMHERST, N.Y. — Daemen College Head Women's Bowling Coach David Zajac has announced the fall portion of the team's 2017-18 schedule. The fall slate features one two-day tournament and three dual matches over a six-week stretch from late October to early December.
The Wildcats open the season Oct. 24 when they host Thiel College. The match will take place at Kenmore Lanes which will serve as the new home venue for Daemen this season. The two programs are very familiar with each other, having faced each other 14 times over the previous two seasons. Daemen owns a 9-5 advantage in the all-time series and prevailed in all six meetings last year.
The Wildcats will then take part in the Medaille Tournament, which will be held Nov. 4-5 at Classic Lanes in Tonawanda, N.Y. Additional participating teams include Hilbert College, Penn State-Altoona, Penn State-Behrend, University of Pittsburgh-Bradford, Roberts Wesleyan College and St. Vincent College.
The final two dual matches will come against programs that are entering their first season as a varsity program.
Nov. 15 has the Wildcats traveling to Braymiller's Lanes in nearby Hamburg, N.Y. to face Hilbert, which announced earlier this year that women's bowling would transition from a club sport to varsity status.
Three weeks later (Dec. 9) the Wildcats close out the fall portion of the schedule by hosting St. Vincent at Kenmore Lanes. Located in Latrobe, Pa., St. Vincent announced this past February that it would be forming it's first-ever varsity women's bowling team.
"We are excited to get our 2017-18 season underway," said Zajac. "We have two full recruiting classes as part of our program now, in addition to two veteran bowlers who have been around since the inception of the program. We are working to build the best NCAA Division II bowling program that we can be. We'll get a little taste of what the ladies can do this fall before our schedule ramps up during the spring semester."
Zajac took the reins of the program on an interim basis last fall, just days before the team opened its second season of competition at the Bud Whitman Memorial Tournament hosted by Kutztown University. After going just 2-9 at that opening tournament, Zajac presided over the team's resurgence, going 14-18 over the remainder of the season to finish 16-25 overall, a two-win improvement over the team's record in its inaugural season (14-31). Zajac had the interim tag removed from his title this past March.
While the job at Daemen represents Zajac's first head coaching experience at the collegiate level, he brings a wealth of experience from previous coaching stops and from his own playing career. He served as team captain at both Erie Community College and Saginaw Valley State University, and was a two-time National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-American at the former. He helped the ECC Kats capture the 2011 NJCAA national championship after averaging a national tournament-best 224 pins per round.
The winter/spring portion of the Wildcats' 2017-18 schedule will be announced at a later date.
For continuing coverage and breaking news surrounding the Daemen women's bowling team follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenBowling on Twitter.
