Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

LAIE, Hawaii - The Aloha State continued to treat the Daemen College women's volleyball team harshly on Friday night as the Wildcats dropped a pair of 3-0 matches to the University of Hawaii-Hilo and Brigham Young University-Hawaii by identical set scores of 16-25, 13-25, 9-25, as tournament action at the East-West Challenge shifted to Hawaii's windward shore at BYU-Hawaii's Cannon Activities Center.  The pair of defeats drops Daemen to 0-4 on the season while both of their opponents improved to 1-0.

First set deficits proved problematic in Thursday's losses to Florida Institute of Technology and Chamindae University in Honolulu, and Friday's matches were no different, unfortunately for the Wildcats.  

A kill from freshman Jakki Steck (Depew, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) moved Daemen within one (7-6) early in the first set vs. UHH, but the Vulcans exploded for a 15-5 run, opening up an 11-point gap (22-11) which Daemen could not recover from. UHH powered down 15 kills in the set to establish control of the match.

The second set played out much like the first.  The teams traded blows early in the set and a kill by Daemen sophomore Amber Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) brought the Wildcats within a point, trailing 9-8.  UHH got rolling then on the serve of Marley Strand-Nicolaisen who accounted for three aces during a 9-2 Vulcan run which opened up an 18-10 edge.  Daemen would get no closer than seven the rest of the set which was closed out by another UHH service ace, this one off the hand of Callie Aberle.

Daemen got their first lead of the match early in the third set, opening up by winning three of the first four points, including back-to-back kills from senior Lindsey Nowak (West Seneca, N.Y./Immaculata).  But, UHH rattled off 14 consecutive points, 13 of which came during the serve rotation of Sienna Davis.  Eight attack errors by the Wildcats in the run doomed their fates as the Vulcans jumped out to an insurmountable 15-3 lead.

Nowak led the way in defeat for Daemen with seven kills.  Freshman Katie McKrell (Webster, N.Y./Webster Schroeder) reached double figure assists for the third straight match with 10 while Drzymala and senior Chelsea Turcer (Alexander, N.Y./Alexander Central) paced the Daemen defense with 14 and 12 digs, respectively.

Strand-Nicolaisen was the big hitter for the Vulcans, finishing with 14 kills to go along with four service aces.  Davis notched 31 assists to take match-high honors.

Against the host BYU-Hawaii Seasiders, it was another long run in the third set that ultimately spelled disaster for Daemen.  Trailing 2-0 in sets, Daemen saw BYU-Hawaii rattle of 12 straight points to turn a manageable five-point spread (12-7) into a 17-point cushion (24-7).  The Seasiders led from start to finish in each set and finished with 41 kills on an attack percentage of .375.  Shih Ting Chen led the way with 15 kills on 29 attempts, and did not commit an error (.517 attack percentage).

Steck (eight kills), Drzymala (seven kills) and Nowak (six kills) paced the Daemen offense, combining for 21 of the team's 26 kills, while McKrell put up 23 assists for the first match of her career with 20 or more.  Turcer added 13 digs.  Both McKrell and Turcer took home match-high honors in their respective categories.

Daemen will conclude its five-match swing through Oahu on Saturday when they meet up with Chaminade for the second time in three days back in Honolulu.  Game time is set for 11 a.m. HAST (5 p.m. EST) and live stats for the match are available.  You can check out a full preview of the East-West Challenge and, as always, stay tuned to wildcats.daemen.edu, Twitter and/or Facebook for the latest breaking news surrounding the Daemen College volleball team all season long.