AMHERST, N.Y. - Some home cooking was just what the doctor ordered for the Daemen College women's volleyball team as they swept past visiting Mercy College tonight 3-0 (26-24, 25-9, 25-19) in an East Coast Conference contest at Lumsden Gymnasium. With the win, Daemen extended their home winning streak to five straight matches, improving to 7-1 here this season.
The Wildcats improved to 10-5 overall and evened their ECC record at 1-1. Daemen has won eight of their last 10 matches. Their only recent setbacks came on a three-match road trip to end September as they fell to expected regional contenders Molloy College and Adelphi University.
The visiting Mavericks, who were picked fourth in the ECC preseason poll, dropped to 6-10 overall and 0-2 in conference play.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Daemen racked up 21 kills and outlasted a game Mavericks squad in the opening set, 26-24. Mercy built an early four-point lead, and led 20-18 late in the set before Daemen rallied for eight of the next 12 points.
- The Wildcats raced to a 10-3 lead to open the second set and never looked back, cruising to a 25-9 set score.
- The third set had a little more back and forth, until the Wildcats turned a 14-12 edge into an insurmountable 22-14 advantage. Freshman Lexi Prokopius (Independence, Ohio) closed the set and match with a kill that gave Daemen a 25-19 win.
- Meghan Ballou (Eden, N.Y.), Sam Logan (Eden, N.Y.) and Allison Post (Windsor, Calif.) combined for 29 of Daemen's 43 kills in the match. Ballou totaled a match-high 11, marking her second outing with 10 or more this season. Logan and Post dropped nine kills apiece. The trio combined for a .302 hitting percentage, paced individually by Ballou's .389.
- Redshirt senior Courtney Bernard (Lancaster, Ohio) chipped in six kills on just 11 swings (.545 hitting percentage).
- Isa McCaffrey (North Royalton, Ohio) contributed 20 assists, and Hannah McKee (East Highland, Calif.) added 14, matching her season-high for the second consecutive match.
- Defensively, Ali Greenwood (North Aurora, Ill.) notched 11 digs and Tirzah Peters (Amherst, N.Y.) recorded four blocks.
- Mercy senior outside hitter Imani DeBose, who entered the match as the ECC leader in kills, was limited to just four this evening on 15 attempts.
- Daemen attacked at a .296 clip for the match, and held Mercy to just an .067 hitting percentage.
HEAD COACH STEPHANIE ALBANO POST-GAME COMMENTS
"We spent some time talking about in practice just our ability to play hard, and go as hard as we can both physically and mentally, and not worry about the outcome. We've been really stressing that all week in practice when we got back, and about recognizing making aggressive decisions. So, it was nice to see us start to do that again, and it felt good to do that."
GAME NOTES
- The Wildcats have now won 14 of their last 16 ECC matches dating back to the start of the 2018 season. They've also won eight straight home conference matches.
- Daemen has won 13 of their last 14 home matches, and the Wildcats own a 33-14 record at Lumsden Gymnasium since Albano took the reins of the program in 2016.
- The win was Daemen's 55th against an East Region opponent since the start of the 2016 season. Daemen is winning 73 percent of their regional matches in that span.
- Daemen improved to 11-2 all-time against Mercy. The Wildcats have won nine straight matches with the Mavericks.
- McCaffrey reached double-figure assists for the 45th time in 47 career matches.
- Greenwood reached double-figure digs for the 42nd time in her last 47 matches dating back to her freshman season. She's closing in on 1,000 digs for her career, now standing with 976 in 70 matches played.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats put their home winning streak on the line tomorrow afternoon when they host Queens College at 3 p.m.
Daemen College features the only NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.
