AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College women's volleyball team put on an impressive performance in a home East Coast Conference matchup against Mercy College during a straight-set victory (25-17, 25-14, 25-20) at Lumsden Gymnasium. With the win, the Wildcats improve to over .500 overall with a record of 12-11 and an ECC mark of 7-3.  The Mavericks fall to 6-12 overall and 1-9 in the ECC.

Ashley Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) paved the way for the Wildcats with 12 kills and eight digs while her older sister Amber Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) paced the team with 14 digs and two aces.  Sophomore setter Katie McKrell (Webster, N.Y./Webster Schroeder) had a solid game as she totaled 34 assists while chipping in an ace and leading the team with two blocks. 

Daemen began the first game with three separate spurts of three-point runs to gain an early lead of 9-5.  During this run, senior middle blocker Ye Wang (Beijing, China/Hachioji Jissen) tallied two kills and a solo block.  A four-point run gave the Wildcats a solid eight-point lead that the Mavericks could not retaliate from.  Daemen would end the first set with a 25-17 victory.

Mercy was down two points in the second set but gained a two-point edge when Peyton Olson put down four kills in a row.  A six-point run earned a Wildcat lead and the team did not look back from there. Ashley Drzymala would answer Olson with four kills in a row of her own to give the Wildcats a five-point edge.   A kill from Jenna Reeser (Amherst, N.Y./Sweet Home) would end a five-point spurt for Daemen and a Maverick serving error would end the second set with a 25-14 Daemen win.

The third set was the closest set of the day for the two teams as they rallied back-and-forth for the majority of the set.  The Mavericks conducted an early lead of 5-2 with back-to-back kills from Sa'Naya Johnson.  The two teams were tied at six different points in the game before Ashley Drzymala ended a long rally and regain the lead for the Wildcats at 15-14.  The Wildcats took advantage of Maverick handling errors before freshman middle blocker Karissa Hegans (Harker Heights, Texas/Harker Heights) had the final word with a roll shot to the middle of the court. 

Peyton paced the Mavericks with 12 kills in a losing effort.  No other Mercy player was able to tally over four kills.  Brooke Runge led the Mavericks with 15 assists while Brianna Heffernan accumulated 12 digs in the match. 

The Wildcats will hit the road on Friday, October 30 and look to extend their two-game winning streak in an ECC matchup against Queens College in Flushing, N.Y. at 7:00 p.m.