THE LEAD: The Daemen College women's soccer team begins a regular-season ending stretch of three-straight home games Wednesday night (Oct. 29) when it hosts Alfred University in a non-league match…game time is 7:30 p.m. at Dimp Wagner Stadium.
Wednesday, Oct. 29
Alfred at Daemen - 7:30 p.m.
LIVE STATS
THE COACHES: Dan Dolan enters his sixth season as head coach at Daemen. The 2011 American Mideast Conference (AMC) Coach of the Year, Dolan has led the Wildcats to four consecutive non-losing seasons and owns a career record of 57-48-3 (.542). He guided Daemen to the 2012 United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) national championship and a runner-up showing at the USCAA Championship Tournament last year. Aileen Ascolese is in her second 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.
MOVE TO II: Daemen is in Candidacy Year Three of the NCAA Division II membership process. Daemen has been accepted as a member of the East Coast Conference (ECC) and began playing full regular-season conference schedules last 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 Three.
THE SERIES: Daemen and Alfred have met only three times over the past nine seasons and the Wildcats have prevailed in all three meetings…Daemen posted a 3-0 victory at Alfred last year…Juli Prentice gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute and the score remained 1-0 until Kacey Bougard doubled DC's lead in the 59th minute…Daemen closed out the scoring with an unassisted goal by Cassidy Kozub with just 55 seconds to play…Daemen posted a 20-5 advantage in shots…Rachel Reichart stopped three shots for Daemen, while Samijo Scheer made eight saves for the Saxons…the teams last met at Dimp Wagner Stadium in 2010 and the Wildcats rolled to 4-1 victory...Alfred opened the scoring in the 20th minute, before the Wildcats answered with four-straight goals…Daemen posted a 29-1 advantage in shots.
THE WILDCATS (3-11-1): Daemen returns 14 players (8 starters) from last year's team that finished 10-10-0 overall and 1-8-0 in the competitive East Coast Conference…the Wildcats advanced to the championship game of the USCAA Tournament for the second-straight year, but a 3-2 OT loss to top-seeded Maine-Fort Kent denied Daemen its second-straight USCAA national championship…Daemen was voted ninth in the ECC preseason poll…graduation took its toll up front, with the loss of forwards Kacey Bougard (13 gls, 7 asts) and Samantha Engel (11 gls, 8 asts) who both collected first team USCAA All-America honors…USCAA All-American defenders Meghan Diehl and Meghan Lipinoga return, as does three-year starter Rachael Banasik…goaltender Kathryn Haessner, who started 13 games and posted a 1.56 GAA with two shutouts last year, also returns to the fold…newcomers Rose Carboni (back), Alex Juliano (forward), Alexis Ruggiero (midfield) and Stephanie Zurales (forward) have all made an immediate impact…the Wildcats opened the 2014 season with wins over Rio Grande (2-1 OT) and Maine-Fort Kent (2-0), before suffering through a seven-game losing streak…Daemen snapped the skid following a 1-1 (2 OT) tie with St. Thomas Aquinas on Oct. 5…Daemen rallied for a 3-2 non-league win over Medaille College on Oct. 7, but is winless in its last four outings…the Wildcats are coming off league losses at Queens (3-0) and Molloy (1-0) last weekend…Lindsay Stoddard and Emily Ward scored their first career goals in the win over Rio Grande, while Carboni and Juliano did the same in the win over UMFK…Stoddard and Banasik scored in 3-2 loss to Mercyhurst, while sophomore Cassidy Kozub netted DC's lone goal in the tie with STAC and netted the game-winner in the win over Medaille…Haessner started the first 11 games (1.56 GAA) in goal…she established a season-high for saves (9) in the loss to Mercy and equaled the mark in the tie with STAC…Juli Prentice has started the last four games in net and made seven saves in a 2-1 loss to Mansfield.
WILDCATS EARN USCAA BID: Daemen has been selected to participate in the 2014 USCAA championship tournament which will take place Nov. 5-8 in Charleston, W. Va...West Virginia University Institute of Technology is serving as the tournament host…Daemen is seeded third in the 10-team tournament and will face sixth-seeded Carlow University in the quarterfinals Nov. 6…the Wildcats claimed the USCAA national championship in 2012 and finished as the tournament runner-up last fall…complete tournament details can be found HERE.
THE SAXONS (3-12-2): Alfred is a member of the NCAA Division III Empire 8 Conference...the Saxons posted a 5-13-0 overall record and an 0-7-0 mark in the E8 last fall...the Saxons went 3-2-1 over their first six games of 2014, but are winless (0-10-1) over their last 11 games...Alfred remained winless in league play (0-7-0) following losses to nationally-ranked Nazareth (6-1) and Elmira (1-0) last week…sophomore Mariana Crevison netted three goals in an early-season win over SUNY-Canton and has totaled a team-high four goals…additional offense has come from freshman Lauren Wyant (1 gl, 4 asts), senior Nicole Lobur (2 gls), junior Rachel Ball (2 gls) and freshman Delaney Marton (2 gls)…freshman Sammy Jo Shanahan has started 16 games in net (2.50 GAA, 1 SO) and made a season-high 14 saves in a season-opening 1-1 (2 OT) tie with SUNY Potsdam.
DID YOU KNOW?: DC's recent 3-2 loss at Mercyhurst marked just the fourth time since the start of the 2010 season that the Wildcats have lost a game when scoring two or more goals…Daemen is 42-4-1 since the start of the 2010 season when it scores two or more goals…the Wildcats had won 15-straight games in which they scored two or more goals before suffering a 3-2 OT loss to Maine-Fort Kent in last year's USCAA Tournament championship game.
WHAT'S NEXT: The Wildcats return to action Friday (Oct. 31) when they host New York Institute of Technology in an East Coast Conference match…game time is 8:30 p.m. at Dimp Wagner Stadium.
FOLLOW THE WILDCATS: Follow Daemen College women's soccer on Twitter (@DaemenAthletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/daemencollegeathletics or www.facebook.com/daemencollegewomenssoccer) to get live game updates and breaking news throughout the year.
