Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Tropical desitinations have not been kind to the Daemen College women's volleyball team this season.

The Wildcats are still searching for their first victory of the season after dropping their final two matches at the Eckerd College Classic today, falling to 0-9 on the season.  Daemen opened today's action with a 3-0 loss (23-25, 14-25, 16-25) to Nova Southeastern University and followed that with a 3-0 defeat (20-25, 17-25, 21-25) at the hands of Florida Institute of Technology.

A back-and-forth first set against NSU saw neither team establish more than a two-point gap late in the period, after Daemen battled back to erase a modest three-point deficit to knot the set at 16-apiece.  After trading points, Daemen got back-to-back kills by sophomore Amber Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) to go up by one, 20-19, in what was their first lead since gaining the first point of the match.  

Another Drzymala kill later put the Wildcats ahead 22-20, but NSU rallied for the next two points to draw even.  Daemen's Lindsey Nowak (West Seneca, N.Y./Immaculata) put down a kill on the ensuing point to push the Wildcats back ahead by one.  But, consecutive kills by NSU's Sydney Cook and a Daemen attack error gave the Sharks the final three points, and a 1-0 lead in sets.

In set two, the Sharks used a 9-1 spurt to turn a slim two-point edge (13-11) into an insurmountable 22-12 gap.  Daemen got no closer than nine the remainder of the set.

NSU closed out the match in the third, jumping out to a 17-13 lead before scoring eight of the final 11 points.

The Sharks were led by Katie Pyles who finished with 12 kills, 18 assists and 11 digs.  They jumped over .500 for the season at 4-3 with the victory.

Daemen got 12 kills from Drzymala and 11 from Nowak, but attacked at just .040 for the match.  Nowak and fellow senior Chelsea Turcer (Alexander, N.Y./Alexander Central) split 18 digs between them while sophomore setter Ryanne Dugan (Forestville, N.Y./Forestville Central) notched 10 assists.

It was more of the same against Florida Tech as the Panthers established control early in all three sets and cruised to their second win of the season against Daemen.  The two teams had met back on Sept. 4 in the East-West Challenge on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.  The win pushed Florida Tech to 5-3 on the season.

Nowak notched 12 kills against Florida Tech, and was the lone Wildcat to reach double figures.  Dugan and freshman Katie McKrell (Webster, N.Y./Wesbter Schroeder) combined for 21 assists.

The Panthers were paced by the 10 kills of Kim Juriga and 33 assists from Ashtin Truesdale.

Daemen opens East Coast Conference play next week when they visit Roberts Wesleyan College on Tuesday, Sept. 16.  The home portion of their 2014 slate begins Friday, Sept. 19 when the Wildcats play host to ECC-foe Dowling College.