AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College women's volleyball team suffered a three-set defeat (16-25, 21-25, 16-25) to the New York Institute of Technology in an East Coast Conference match at Lumsden Gymnasium this morning.  With the loss, Daemen falls to 1-19 overall this season and 1-6 in conference play.  The win for NYIT snapped the Bears' seven-match losing streak as they moved to 9-12 overall and 5-3 in the league.

Daemen never got on track in the opening set, falling behind 5-0 at the outset and later trailed by as many as seven points.  Down 21-14, the Wildcats got back-to-back kills by Rachel Stephenson (Hamburg, N.Y./Frontier) and Mackenzie Knihinicki (Lakeview, N.Y./Frontier) to close the gap to five (21-16), but NYIT rattled off four straight points to close out the set.  

Daemen hung tough in the second set and held a one-point lead at two different junctures late in the set (15-14 and 17-16), both coming via kills by senior Lindsey Nowak (West Seneca, N.Y./Immaculata).  Later in the set, freshman Jenna Reeser (Amherst, N.Y./Sweet Home) picked up a kill to knot the score at 21-all.  But, again NYIT got four straight points in crunch time to win the set, closing it out on a service ace by Emily Mankowski.

Tied at 12-12 in the third, NYIT scored 13 of the next 17 points to end the match.  It started with a modest 6-2 spurt with all six NYIT points coming on Mankowski kills.  The run extended with Mankowski holding serve, including two more service aces.

Mankowski finished with a match-best 15 kills to go with 11 digs and five aces.  Allison Fowler put up 37 assists for the Bears while Becky Syers matched Mankowski's dig total to share team-high honors.  

Sophomore Amber Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) was the lone Wildcat to reach double figures in kills with 10.  Freshman Katie McKrell (Webster, N.Y./Webster Schroeder) contributed 18 assists while Drzymala (13 digs) and Reeser (10 digs) led the Daemen defensive efforts.

Superb attacks was the story of the match for NYIT as the Bears committed just nine attack errors for the day, resulting in a .333 attack percentage.  NYIT also got a pair of solo blocks and 12 block assists compared to just two block assists for the home-standing Wildcats.

Daemen looks to right the ship when they host Long Island University Post in another East Coast Conference matchup tomorrow at 11 a.m.