READING, Pa. - The newly-established Daemen College women's bowling team competed for the first time ever today, partaking in the Kutztown Fall Baker Invitational held at Berks Lanes.  The Wildcats, under the direction of first-year head coach Jennifer Kinyon, went 3-3 in today's matches to open their inaugural season.

Daemen picked up wins over Coppin State University (837-627), Penn State University-Altoona (834-677) and Franklin Pierce University (766-749).  The win over Coppin State came in the Wildcats' first-ever match.  The win over Franklin Pierce came after Daemen erased 23-pin deficit heading into the fifth and final game of the contest, outscoring FPU 170-130 to secure the victory.

Losses came against perennial powerhouse Delaware State University (890-710), who ended last season ranked No. 17 in the nation, as well as Thiel College (738-707) and Felician College (740-642).

Redshirt-freshman Kaitlyn O'Hara (Clarence Center, N.Y./Clarence) paced the Wildcats today with a Baker-scoring average of 18.75 over 60 frames. She was backed up by freshman Jess Cunningham (Watervliet, N.Y./Watervliet) who put up a 17.72 Baker-scoring average today.

Daemen ranked 12th out of 17 participating teams in today's tournament with a total pin count of 4,496.  Long Island University-Brooklyn paced the field in terms of total pins with 5,616.

Daemen's match against Franklin Pierce represented the first-ever meeting between the Wildcats and East Coast Conferfence associate member FPU.  Tournament host Kutztown is also an associate member of the ECC.  The conference is in its first year sponsoring women's bowling as a varsity sport, complete with a conference championship.

Daemen will resume play on day two of the tournament with five matches tomorrow, beginning with a showdown against Caldwell University at 9 a.m.