Daemen University Athletics

AMHERST, N.Y. - Senior volleyball player Kaley Vazquez (Kenmore, N.Y./Kenmore West) and freshman cross country runner Matt Cregan (Syracuse, N.Y./Solvay) have been named the Bedore Tours Student-Athletes of the Month for October.

Vazquez, a 5-foot-5 setter, led Daemen to an 8-4 record last month as the Wildcats closed October with seven straight wins.  For the month, Vazquez averaged 21.3 assists and 7.6 digs per match.

She put up a season-high 30 assists vs. Edinboro University on Oct. 15 and recorded her 2,500th career assist in Daemen's four-set win over Long Island University Post on Oct. 25.  She leads the team with 555 assists so far this season and has a total of 2,662 assists with four matches still remaining in her career.

Cregan led the Wildcats to a third-place finish in their first-ever appearance at the East Coast Conference Championships on Oct. 27.  As the top freshman finisher in the race (10th place), Cregan was named the ECC Rookie of the Year while also earning Second Team All-Conference honors.  His time of 26:23.24 narrowly missed breaking the school record for an 8K race (26:22.39) set by Brett Smith (Ontario, N.Y./Wayne Central) at the Highlander Invitational on Sept. 24, 2011.

Prior to his solid conference championship race, Cregan was named the ECC Rookie of the Week for his performance at the Mercyhurst/Gannon Invitational on Oct. 12 in which he finished in sixth place with a time of 27:56.  It was his third weekly honor of the season having been previously named the ECC Rookie of the Week for Sept. 16-22 and the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) Runner of the Week for Sept. 23-29.