OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. - The Daemen College volleyball team put their unblemished East Coast Conference record on the line tonight and suffered a 3-1 defeat (16-25, 25-18, 16-25, 30-28) to host N.Y. Institute of Technology at Recreation Hall.

With the loss, Daemen drops back under .500 overall (8-9) while falling to 3-1 in ECC play.  The host Bears, a program that boasts 14 seasons of 20 or more wins in the 30-year tenure of head coach Gail Wasmus, improves to 12-3 overall while evening their ECC mark at 2-2.

NYIT got a combined 33 kills from Emily Mankowski and Karolina Moderova in the win.  Mankowski put down 18 markers while Moderova followed with 15.  No other NYIT managed more than six kills in the match.

Freshman Ashley Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster) hammered 15 kills in a losing effort for the Wildcats.  Daemen also got 12 kills from senior Ye Wang (Beijing, China/Hachioji Jissen), her third-straight match with double-figure kills.

Daemen led 3-1 early in the opening set, but NYIT erased that quickly and never trailed for the remainder of the period once establishing a lead.  The Bears rattled off six-straight points, turning a slim 12-10 lead into an insurmountable eight-point bulge at 18-10.  The hosts would go on to close the set at 25-16 on a kill by Rachel Guida.

The Wildcats would rebound to even things up with a 25-18 second-set victory.  Leading 7-6 in the set, Daemen used a 9-4 spurt to establish control.  Ashley Drzymala picked up a pair of kills in the run which put the guests ahead 16-10.  NYIT would pull within three at 20-17, but four-straight Daemen points would stem the tide, bookended by kills from Amber Drzymala (West Seneca, N.Y./St Mary's of Lancaster) and Rachel Stephenson (Hamburg, N.Y./Frontier).  A service error by NYIT closed the set and tied up the match at one set apiece.

NYIT would take the pivotal third set, using a 7-0 run to go ahead 15-6.  Daemen would get no closer than seven for the remainder of the set as the hosts went ahead in the match, 2-1.

Daemen battled to the bitter end in set No. 4, trailing by as many as six before forcing the set into extra points.  With the Bears in control at 19-13, Daemen used a 7-2 run to pull within one (21-20) with Wang notching three kills in the spurt.  The teams would trade points until Daemen established a 27-26 lead, but a Wildcat service error again knotted the score.  That would end up as the Wildcats' only chance to closeout the set and even the match as NYIT forced back-to-back attack errors from Daemen to win the set, 30-28, and the match 3-1.

Allison Fowler set the table for the hosts all night long, finishing with a match-high 43 assists.  Becky Syers added 22 digs for the victors.

Sophomore setter Katie McKrell (Webster, N.Y./Webster Schroeder) contributed 33 assists for the Wildcats.  Daemen also got 15 digs from freshman Kailey Ballou (Eden, N.Y./Eden).

Daemen returns to ECC action tomorrow when they face Long Island University Post at noon.