Women's Tennis | 3/22/2019 1:10:00 PM

MATCH INFORMATION

Match #19

Daemen Wildcats (1-17, 0-7 ECC) vs. Thiel College Tomcats (1-13, 1-6 Presidents' Athletic Conference)

Sunday, March 24 |  1:00 PM |  Greenville, Pa.

THE SERVE

Daemen travels to Northwest Pennsylvania to take on the Thiel College Tomcats. The Wildcats previously fell to Angelo State and Southern Utah. The Wildcats picked up their first one of the season (4-3) against Edinboro.

MCDERMOTT ERA

The 2018-19 season marks the start of a new era for Daemen as head coach Kerry McDermott begins his first season with the program. In early July, McDermott was named the third head coach in team history after spending the last 36 seasons as the head men's tennis coach at the University of Nebraska. In that time, McDermott led the Huskers to 405 victories, the most of any coach in team history, and two NCAA Tournament appearances. His tenure at the Division I school also included one season (1988-89) as the Huskers' head women's tennis coach. 

10! 

Daemen is coming off a 10-14 record in 2017-18, the program's first-ever 10-win season. The record-setting campaign included eight victories during the fall season, also the most the team has ever achieved, and tying the program record for wins in an entire season which had been done in each of the three previous seasons. An 8-1 win over Clarion on Feb. 23 broke that mark, and the Wildcats went on to add a 6-3 win over Fairmont State on April 7 to break into double figures. 

ROCKIN' ROBINS

Senior Jessica Robins returns to the lineup as the team's most experienced and accomplished player. The North Tonawanda, N.Y. native has been a fixture in the lineup over her first three collegiate seasons, and is coming off the strongest season of her career. She posted a career-best 13 singles wins in 2017-18, tied for fourth among the program's all-time single season leaders. Now with 63 combined singles and doubles wins in her career, Robins ranks third in team history. Her 60th win came against St. Thomas Aquinas' Anna Ristova earlier this season as she became just the third player in team history to reach 60 combined wins.

SUPER SOPH

Sophomore Christina Stasiuk also returns to the lineup after making an immediate impact in her rookie season. Stasiuk set a new benchmark for singles wins in a season, racking up 18 of them last year. She surpassed the previous record for singles wins by a freshman (13) set by Gretchen Ringler in 2014-15, and later eclipsed the overall record of 14 singles wins set by Hayle Scanlan in 2016-17. Stasiuk has gotten off to a fast start this season as she leads the team with a 6-6 mark in singles play. All six of her singles wins have come in the No. 1 spot in the lineup. 

ROAD WARRIORS

Daemen will spend some significant time on the road this spring as all 13 of their matches occur away from home. That includes the team's first-ever trip to California where they'll face Angelo State (Mar. 12) and Southern Utah (Mar. 14). In-state road matches occur Feb. 23 at Le Moyne, Mar. 10 at St. Bonaventure, Mar. 27 at Houghton, Apr. 2 at Elmira, Apr. 15 at Oswego State, Apr. 17 at Alfred and Apr. 23 at Niagara. 

THIEL SCOUTING REPORT

Thiel College is a member of the Presidents' Athletic Conference at the Division III level, and the Tomcats are led by first year coach Gabriele Eaborn. She also coaches the men's team. Thiel returns all of its players from last season. The Tomcats fell to Washington and Jefferson College in the PAC Championship Tournament in October and return with its first match since then. The Tomcats lone win came against PAC member Waynesburg University by a match score of 5-4 on Oct. 11, 2018. This is the teams' first meeting since 2014 in which the Wildcats won 6-3.

ALL-TIME SERIES: DAEMEN VS. THIEL

Series Record: 1-1

Streak: W1

Last Meeting: W 6-3 (10/19/14)

ON THE HORIZON

Daemen travels to Houghton, N.Y. for a matchup against Houghton College on Wednesday, March 27 with the match beginning at 4 p.m.