THE MATCHUP: The Daemen College women's soccer team takes a break from conference play when it travels to Alfred University for a Wednesday night match...game time is 7 p.m.

THE COACHES: Dan Dolan is in his fifth season as head coach at Daemen...the 2011 American Mideast Conference (AMC) Coach of the Year, Dolan has led the Wildcats to three consecutive winning seasons and owns a career record of 51-35-2 (.591)...he guided Daemen to the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) national championship last fall...Aileen Ascolese is in her first season as head coach at Alfred...she previously served as an assistant at Brandeis University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Elmira College...she played at Division I Rider University, where she was a four-year starter.

THE SERIES vs. ALFRED: Daemen and Alfred have met only twice over the past eight seasons...the Wildcats have prevailed in both meetings, including a 4-1 victory in 2010 at Dimp Wagner Stadium...Alfred opened the scoring off an unassisted goal by Liz Graham in the 20th minute, before the Wildcats answered with four-straight goals...Kacey Bougard evened the score in the 38th minute and Rachael Banasik scored in the 53rd and 74th minutes to give DC a 3-1 lead...Kelsey O'Leary capped the scoring in the 78th minute...Rachel Reichart and Caitlin Brooks shared the goaltending duties for Daemen, which posted a 29-1 advantage in shots...Shanna Ewoldt went the distance in goal for AU and made 11 saves.

NCAA DIVISION II: Daemen is in Candidacy Year Two of the NCAA Division II membership process...Daemen has been accepted as a member of the East Coast Conference (ECC) and will play full regular-season conference schedules beginning this fall...the College will also maintain its affiliation with the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) for postseason opportunities, as it will not be eligible for the ECC or NCAA postseason during Candidacy Year Two.

THE WILDCATS: Daemen lost six starters from last year's team that won eight of its final nine contests en route to the USCAA championship...the Wildcats were picked 10th in the ECC preseason poll...Daemen is ranked second in the USCAA national poll released Oct. 18...Daemen won three of its first four games, including a 2-0 win over Maine-Fort Kent in a rematch of last year's USCAA championship game...the Wildcats are 4-4-0 over their last eight games and are coming off conference losses to Dowling (2-0) and nationally-ranked Bridgeport (5-1) last weekend...seven of Daemen's eight losses have come against ECC opponents...Daemen picked up its first-ever ECC win following a 4-1 victory at St. Thomas Aquinas on Oct. 5...ECC losses have come against Queens (3-1), Molloy (3-1), Roberts Wesleyan (4-0), New York Tech (1-0), LIU Post (3-0), Dowling (2-0) and Bridgeport (5-1)...Daemen's backline--led by juniors Hannah Fraser (Milton, Vt./Milton) and Meghan Diehl (Webster, N.Y./Webster Thomas) and redshirt-sophomore Meghan Lipinoga (North Tonawanda, N.Y./Canisius College)--has limited nine of DC's 15 opponents to one goal or less...redshirt senior Kacey Bougard (East Aurora, N.Y./Sacred Heart) and senior Samantha Engel (Dryden, N.Y./Dryden) have paced the offense...Bougard made the most of her first game action since 2010 with a "hat trick" and an assist in a 4-1 season-opening win over Alderson-Broaddus...she was named ECC Offensive Player of the Week and USCAA Player of the Week after totaling 10 points (4 gls, 2 asts) in a  recent 2-2-0 week...she registered her second "hat trick" of the season in a 5-0 win over SUNY Canton and added a goal and an assist in the win over STAC...she has totaled a team-best 10 goals and 25 points on the year...Engel was named ECC Offensive Player of the Week and USCAA Player of the Week after totaling a goal and an assist in each of the season-opening wins over A-B and UMFK...she registered seven points (3 gls, 1 ast) in wins over Rochester and Cleary and has totaled 18 points (7 gls, 4 asts) overall...senior Alexa Amato (Grand Island, N.Y./Grand Island), who totaled a team-best 10 goals and 22 points last year, returned to the lineup last weekend after missing 11 games due to injury...redshirt freshman Kathryn Haessner (Moravia, N.Y./Moravia) has started 13 games in net and made a career-high 13 saves in the loss to LIU Post...she made nine saves in the win over UMFK...that effort earned her ECC Co-Rookie of the Week honors...she owns a 1.56 GAA with two shutouts...redshirt senior Rachel Reichart (Marilla, N.Y./Iroquois Central) has appeared in seven games (two starts) and went the distance in the 4-1 win over Cleary.

THE SAXONS: Alfred is a member of the NCAA Division III Empire 8 Conference...the Saxons return several key players from last year's team that finished 7-10-0 and 1-6-0 in the Empire 8...the Saxons snapped a three-game losing streak following a 3-2 win at SUNY Maritime this past Sunday...Alfred remained winless in league play (0-5-0) following a 5-1 loss at Steven this past Saturday...junior Nicole Lobur has netted six of the team's 14 goals...she scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Penn College and also scored twice in a 3-0 win over Wells...freshman Mariana Crevison scored all three goals--including the OT winner--in a 3-2 win over D'Youville and also scored the game-winner in the 3-2 win over SUNY Maritime this past weekend...senior Samijo Scheer has started 13 games in net (3.08 GAA, 2 SO) and made 10 saves in an eary-season 2-0 win over Hilbert.DID YOU KNOW?: Daemen is 37-2-1 since the start of the 2010 season when it scores two or more goals...the Wildcats are 12-0-0 in the last 12 games in which they have scored two or more goals...Daemen has played eight overtime games since the start of the 2010 season and is 5-2-1 in those contests...Kacey Bougard ranks second among the ECC leaders in points (25) and goals (10) and is tied for second in assists (5)...Kathryn Haessner ranks second among the ECC leaders in total saves (89) and fourth in save percentage (.832)...Samantha Engel has played in all 72 games (69 starts) since the start of the 2010 season and has totaled 93 career points (32 gls, 29 asts)...freshmen Kelly DuVall (Addison, N.Y./Addison) and Caitlyn Grover (Canandaigua, N.Y./Marcus Whitman) both netted their first career goals in recent games...DuVall scored in the 4-1 win over STAC, while Grover scored in the 5-0 win over SUNY Canton.

WHAT'S NEXT: The Wildcats close out the regular season Tuesday (Oct. 29) when they travel to Mercy College for an ECC game at 12 noon...Daemen has been selected to participate in the USCAA championship tournament which will take place Oct. 30 though Nov. 2 in Charleston, W. Va, earning the tournament's No. 2 seed...West Virginia University Institute of Technology is serving as the tournament host...the Wildcats are the defending tournament champion and will face the winner of Wednesday's pre-quarterfinal matchup between No. 7 Paul Smith's College and No. 10 West Virginia Tech

FOLLOW THE WILDCATS: Follow Daemen College women's soccer on Twitter (@DaemenAthletics or @DCWomensSoccer) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/daemencollegeathletics or www.facebook.com/daemencollegewomenssoccer) to get live game updates and breaking news throughout the year.