ROCHESTER, NY - The Daemen Wildcats completed a season sweep of rival Roberts Wesleyan tonight with a thrilling 3-2 victory (15-25, 29-27, 25-20, 24-26, 15-13) as they improved to 4-1 in five-set matches on the season.  The win was Daemen's second consecutive and third of their current nine-match road stretch, against just two losses to move to 23-10 overall and 6-3 in the American Mideast Conference.  With the loss, the Raiders fall to 16-10, 3-6.

After playing in control over the first 12 points of the match to a 6-6 tie, the Wildcats found themselves down by 10.   This allowed the Raiders to quietly finish the first game 25-15.   The Daemen team, which has showed resilience all year, again found their flow on offense and behind sophomore Jenn Karan (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park HS), junior Joanna Fretthold (North Tonawanda, NY/North Tonawanda HS) and freshman Ye Wang (Beijing, China/Hachioji Jissen HS), attacked at a .314 clip and finished with a 29-27 vicotry.    It was a close game throughout, with Daemen coming from a 21-17 deficit to score 12 points of the set's final 18 points.
 
The momentum continued into the third set with the Wildcats holding from the first point of the game and not relinquishing once throughout.   Defensively, Daemen was strong in the set and led by Katie Auge (Salamanca, NY/Salamanca HS) who finished with 26 digs for the match.   Brittany Anthon (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster HS) came in and made some critical passes to solidify the 25-20 set victory.
 
Game four continued to go Daemen's way as they built a 20-16 lead.   Freshman Sam Snyder (Adams, NY/South Jefferson HS) and sophomore Rachel Ottaway (Sherman, NY/Sherman HS) helped the team build the lead.   A few untimely hitting errors allowed Roberts to crawl back into the match by taking the game 26-24.
 
Game five has been kind to Daemen most of the season and today was no different.  The Wildcat attackers hit over .500 during the set, recording 11 kills by five different attackers.  Sophomore Kaitlin Watchey (Jamestown, NY/Jamestown HS) and freshman Lindsey Nowak (West Seneca, NY/Immaculata Acad.) got some key put-aways in the set.    
 
Daemen also put together a solid serving performance with with only six misses out of 107 serves.   Junior Jacki Szeluga (Pendleton, NY/Starpoint HS) was a key member of that serving group with 16 serves in the match.

"We showed the confidence and control in critical situations to close out the match," said Daemen head coach Mark Parisi.  "It has become a special group and they are really looking forward to their AMC playoff opportunity."

The Wildcats return to non-conference action this weekend when they travel to Michigan for the Cornertsone/Aquinas Crossover Tournament where they'll compete in four matches.