Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ROCKLIN, CA - The Daemen Wildcats earned a split of their day's action at the William Jessup Warrior Challenge, falling to NAIA #9 Westmont in three sets (24-26, 17-25, 16-25) in a Friday matinee before besting the Embry-Riddle (AZ) Eagles, also in three sets (25-13, 25-18, 25-22).  The Wildcats now sit at 3-4 with two more matches scheduled for Saturday at the Challenge.

To open the day, the Wildcats failed to generate much offense in the loss to Westmont, hitting just .058 as a team in the match.  Senior Joanna Fretthold (North Tonawanda, NY/North Tonawanda HS) and junior Jenn Karan (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park HS) accounted for 16 of the team's 29 kills in the match.  The Wildcats committed 23 attacking errors while Westmont attacked at a .235 clip as a team, with 40 kills and just 16 hitting errors.

That result left Daemen head coach Mark Parisi a bit frustrated, saying, "We lost our composure in the last two games.  Skill wise, we were just as good as Westmont, but we couldn't overcome some mental mistakes that we made.  We need each player to contribute at the end of a game.  It's time for this group of girls to take the next step in their playing careers."

It seems as if his team responded, as they came back later in the day to sweep the Eagles.  A balanced attack was paced by Karan's seven kills.  She was followed by Fretthold and junior Kaitlin Watchey (Jamestown, NY/Jamestown HS) who split 12 kills between them.  Also contributing five kills apiece was Ye Wang (Beijing, China/Hachioji Jissen HS), Katie Auge (Salamanca, NY/Salamanca HS) and Lindsey Nowak (Hamburg, NY/Immaculata Acad.).  

All together, the team had 36 kills and just 11 hitting errors (.284 hitting percentage), a testament to setters Kaley Vazquez (Kenmore, NY/Kenmore West HS) and Chelsea Turcer (Alexander, NY/Alexander Central HS).  Vazquez finished the match with 16 assists while Turcer had 14.

"The girls came back with a lot of energy and confidence," Parisi said.  "That seems to be the key to success for this team.  We were really focused on executing at a high level and it showed.  We dominated the match from start to finish and got contributions from all six hitters, which means Kaley and Chelsey were putting them in good positions to make kills."

The Wildcats' better play wasn't limited to just their attack either.  Fretthold paced the squad with 11 digs while Auge chipped in eight.  Parisi was pleased with that aspect of their game as well.

"Defensively, we showed much better court movement and aggressiveness," he said.

Daemen concludes their pacific time zone trip with two matches tomorrow.  They'll face the host William Jessup Warriors at 2:30pm EST (game streamed live online at http://new.livestream.com/wju) before facing NAIA #16 Master's College in their weekend finale.