Women's Volleyball Eliminated From Postseason Contention

11/11/2017 4:31:00 PM

By: Lea Sobieraski Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

Box Score FLUSHING, N.Y. – The Daemen College women's volleyball team was officially eliminated from East Coast Conference postseason contention this afternoon. The Wildcats were upended in an epic five-set thriller to Queens College in conference action at Fitzgerald Gymnasium (18-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-18, 5-15).

Daemen dropped to 11-15 overall and 7-6 in the conference; the Wildcats needed to win both matches this weekend to earn the fourth and final spot in the conference tournament. With the Daemen loss, Bridgeport clinched the final spot. Queens improved to 6-17 overall with a 3-10 league mark in today's victory.

Redshirt junior Courtney Scanlan (Ellicottville, N.Y.) registered a team-leading double-double with 17 kills and 18 digs. Abby Francis (Goodrich, Mich), Jenn Heritz (Granger, Ind.) and Meghan Ballou (Eden, N.Y.) all posted double-figure kills in the Wildcat loss. Francis recorded a career-high 14, while Heritz and Ballou added each added 10.

Defensively, rookie libero Georgia Wicker (Woodstock, Ill.) continued to lead the way for the Wildcats, notching a match-high 19 digs. Senior Katie McKrell (Webster, N.Y.) added eleven digs and dished out 48 assists, good for a double-double performance.

Queens jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead after Daemen scored the first point of the match on a kill from Courtney Scanlan; the Knights notched five straight-points on the serve of Leeks Hollis. The hosts outscored the Wildcats 7-4 to widen the gap 12-5, forcing Daemen to call a timeout. Daemen was able to narrow the Knight's lead 22-17 on a kill from Tirzah Peters, but that was as close as DC would get. Queens scored three of the last four points to take the first set 25-18. Queens registered five services and put up six blocks compared to Daemen's one service ace and one block.

Daemen posted a .214 attack percentage and 16 kills en route to a 25-22 second set victory; the Wildcats posted a slim .121% in the opening set. DC outscored Queens 11-6 in the second frame, the spurt included two kills apiece from Jenn Heritz and Abby Francis. The Knights battled back to even the score at 16, but the Wildcats pushed ahead for the win, taking advantage of four QC attack errors.

The two squads traded points back-and-forth for most of the third set, but the Knights used a five-point run to extend their two-point lead to seven (23-16). Daemen responded with two points of their own, but it wasn't enough to catch the Knights, who took the third set 25-19. The Wildcats recorded seven-straight attack errors for the third-straight set.

After committing seven attack errors in all three-sets preceding, Daemen posted just two errors and registered 13 kills in their fourth set victory. The Wildcats had a 12-5 edge before the Knights outscored them 7-2 to cut the deficit to two points (14-12). Daemen kept their playoff hopes intact with a 9-2 run to cap off the fourth set 25-18.

Queens hammered home the first seven points of the fifth and final set, to lead to the ultimate 15-5 demise of the Wildcats. The Knights posted a striking .533 hitting percentage, compared to DC's .062 in the victory.

Daemen concludes their 2017 season tomorrow afternoon, facing off against the Molloy Lions, who can earn hosting privileges for the East Coast Conference Championship tournament with a victory. Game time is set for 12:00 p.m.

For breaking news and continuing coverage of the Daemen women's volleyball team, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenVB on Twitter.

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