Women's Tennis Faces Top-Seeded St. Thomas Aquinas In ECC Tournament

Daemen Making Third Straight Appearance In Conference Tournament

10/27/2022 11:09:00 AM

By: CONTACT: Tom McDermott, Director of Athletics Communications | tmcdermo@daemen.edu

Match #10
Daemen Wildcats (3-6, 2-3 ECC) vs. St. Thomas Aquinas Spartans (8-0, 5-0 ECC)
DATE: Friday, Oct. 28
TIME: 12 p.m.
LOCATION: Flushing, N.Y. | Queens College Tennis Center

BACK IN ACTION
The Daemen women's tennis team will square off against St. Thomas Aquinas in semifinal round action of the 2022 East Coast Conference Championship tournament. STAC is the regular season champion and No. 1 seed. Daemen claimed the fourth and final seed following a 5-2 win over Molloy last Friday. The Wildcats are making their third-straight appearance in the ECC Tournament.

LAST TIME OUT
Daemen secured a spot in the ECC Championship tournament following a 5-2 victory over Molloy last Friday at Miller Tennis Center. Daemen took two of the three doubles matches to earn the one point as per NCAA Division II scoring. The Molloy tandem of Noor Goyvaerts and Hannah Niggemeier outlasted Frida Rubio (San Diego, Calif.) and Kitsa Scime (Williamsville, N.Y.) of Daemen at No. 1 doubles, 7-6. No. 2 doubles saw Daemen's Yinett Del Leon (Cape Coral, Fla.) and Carly Armitage (Rochester, N.Y.) post a 6-2 win over Jill Cafaro and Brooke Williams. Daemen secured the point after Mackenzie Schayes (Honeoye Falls, N.Y.) and Ailish McDevitt (Jamesville, N.Y.) defeated Amanda Oppedisano and Katie Vaseghi, 6-2, at No. 3 doubles. Daemen built a 3-0 lead after Schayes defeated Vaseghi (6-0, 6-0) at No. 6 singles and Armitage downed Williams (6-2, 6-1) at No. 4 singles. Molloy cut the lead to 3-1 after Oppedisano defeated McDevitt (6-2, 6-1) at No. 5 singles, but Scime secured the win with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Cafaro at No. 2 singles. Daemen's other point came at No. 1 singles, where Rubio outlasted Goyvaerts, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4). Molloy picked up its second point at No. 3 singles after Niggemeier defeated Del Leon 6-3, 6-2. Scime has now won five of her last six singles matches. Rubio picked up her third singles win of the year and in the process became just the seventh player in program history to reach 20 career singles wins. Armitage has won four of her last six singles matches and is now 5-7 overall in her rookie season..

BACK AT THE HELM
Second-year head coach Richard Greco, Jr. returns after leading the Wildcats to their second-straight appearance in the ECC Tournament last fall. The Wildcats finished with a 7-10 overall record and a 2-3 mark in ECC play last year. The seven wins were the most in a season for Daemen since posting 10 wins in 2017-18.

RETURNING VETERANS
The Wildcat returners are headlined by junior Frida Rubio (San Diego, Calif.). Rubio, who earned ECC Rookie of the Year and all-conference honors two years ago, posted a 10-9 mark at No. 1 singles last year and a 9-9 record in doubles play. Rubio has gone 20-18 in singles play over her career and already ranks seventh in both combined singles and doubles wins (39) and total singles wins (20) among the program's all-time leaders. Senior Mackenzie Schayes (Honeoye Falls, N.Y.) and sophomore Kitsa Scime (Williamsville, N.Y.), who posted a combined 13 singles and 10 doubles wins last year, also return to the lineup. Scime won her first four singles matches this year and owns a team best 9-4 singles record this season. She has moved into the Top-10 in career singles victories among Daemen's all-time leaders with 17. Senior Ailish McDevitt (Jamesville, N.Y.) and sophomore Yinett Del Leon (Cape Coral, Fla.) are also back. Del Leon owns a 4-8 singles record this season.

FRESH FACES
The team welcomes freshmen Carly Armitage (Rochester, N.Y.) and Dania Mehani (Amherst, N.Y.) to the lineup. Armitage has won four of her last six singles matches and stands at 5-7 in singles play on the year.

SCIME EARNS ALL-ECC HONORS
Sophomore Kitsa Scime (Williamsville, N.Y.) has been named to the All-East Coast Conference Second Team. The official announcement of All-ECC teams was made in a press release from the conference's headquarters on Long Island. It marks the first all-conference accolade for Scime. She joins current teammate Frida Rubio (San Diego, Calif.) and former standouts Christina Stasiuk and Karli Hollins as the only players in program history to garner All-ECC recognition. Rubio earned the nod in 2020-21 when she was also named the ECC Rookie of the Year. Stasiuk was a second team selection last year. Playing primarily in the No. 2 position of the Wildcats' singles lineup, Scime notched a team-high nine singles victories this fall. She added five doubles wins as well, four of which came while paired with Rubio in the No. 1 position of Daemen's lineup. Scime went 8-9 in singles play last year as a freshman and has posted a 17-13 singles record over her two-year career. She is 13-5 in her last 18 singles matches dating back to the end of last season. She ranks eighth in both career singles wins (17) and combined singles and doubles wins (29) among Daemen's all-time leaders.

ON THE HORIZON
The semifinal winner advances to Saturday's ECC Tournament championship match.

SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
STAC remained unbeaten on the year and secured the ECC regular season title following a 4-3 win over District of Columbia last Friday. The Spartans also own league wins over D'Youville (7-0), Daemen (7-0), Queens (5-2) and Molloy (6-1). STAC went 19-3 overall (4-1 ECC) last year and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. The Spartans were voted second in the 2022-23 ECC preseason coaches' poll. Senior Ebba Rosberg was a first-team All-ECC selection this year and was also voted ECC Player of the Year. Teammates Amaia Balaguer Brau, Eliza Mulder, Paula Palero, Elita Silins and Samanta Villegas Robles all earned second-team All-ECC honors.

ALL-TIME SERIES: DAEMEN VS. STAC
Series Record: STAC, 11-0
At Daemen: STAC 5-0
At STAC: STAC, 6-0
Last Meeting: STAC 7, Daemen 0 | Sept. 17, 2022 | at Sparkill, N.Y.

Daemen University features the premier 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.

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