ROCHESTER, N.Y. – In their first meeting as members of the East Coast Conference, the Daemen College women's volleyball team continued its recent dominance over longtime rival Roberts Wesleyan College, scoring a straight-sets victory tonight (25-23, 27-25, 25-21) at Voller Athletic Center.  Daemen won for the ninth time in the last 12 meetings against the Redhawks, picking up their eighth win of the season (8-5) while evening their ECC record (2-2).  RWC fell to 4-6 on the season and 0-3 in conference play.

Daemen trailed only once in the entire match, falling behind by four (14-10) early in the first set before rattling off seven of the next eight points to re-establish the lead.  Four RWC errors aided the Daemen run.

Down the stretch in the opening set, the teams traded blows before a kill from freshman Amber Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) broke a 23-all tie, putting Daemen in a match-point situation.  Another Redhawk error followed on the ensuing point giving Daemen the early lead in the match.

Daemen opened up a seven-point lead (17-10) in the second set on a kill by senior Brittany Anthon (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster).  But, the Redhawks battled back.  Trailing 23-19, the hosts won the next four points, getting two kills from Jordan Wilson and a third from Maggie Concannon, to knot the score at 23-23.

Daemen's Ye Wang (Beijing, China/Hachioji Jissen) temporarily halted the Redhawks' momentum with a booming kill to put Daemen back ahead by one.  The teams traded points until back-to-back kills from Wang and Kaitlin Watchey (Jamestown, N.Y./Jamestown) secured the set for Daemen.

The third set was more of the same as Daemen jumped out to an early lead and ran it up to a six-point edge (20-14) on another Anthon kill.  The Redhawks never got closer than three points the rest of the way and junior Lindsey Nowak (West Seneca, N.Y./Immaculata) hammered down a kill to end the match.

Wang, a junior middle blocker, paced the Wildcats with 14 kills and four blocks.  Her kills came in 30 attempts as she attacked at a .400 clip in the match.  She's now had double-figure kills in 11 of Daemen's 13 matches this season.

Nowak chipped in with nine kills (.250 hitting percentage) and the greenhorn Drzymala added a career-best seven kills (.214 hitting percentage).

Senior Kaley Vazquez (Kenmore, N.Y./Kenmore West) and junior Chelsea Turcer (Alexander, N.Y./Alexander Central) contributed 24 and 15 assists, respectively, while the Daemen ball control efforts were led by Anthon and fellow senior Paige Tilert (Derby, N.Y./Genesee CC).  Tilert had a match-high 14 digs while Anthon added 13.  Vazquez and Drzymala split 16 digs between them for the Wildcats as well.

Wilson paced the Redhawks with nine kills.  Concannon had a match-best 30 assists to go with 11 digs.  Olivia Zureck added 13 digs to the RWC cause.

The match marked the teams' first-ever meeting as members of the ECC.  The former American Mideast Conference rivals are both transitioning from the NAIA to NCAA Division II.

Daemen returns to action later this week.  The Wildcats will put their six-match home winning streak on the line when they host Dowling College on Friday (Oct. 4).  Daemen defeated the Golden Lions this past Sunday (Sept. 29) down on Long Island, N.Y.  The University of Bridgeport also comes to town this weekend (Saturday, Oct. 5).  The two matches will be Daemen's first-ever home ECC contests.