AMHERST, N.Y. -- Six members of the Daemen University women's volleyball team have been named to the 2022 All-East Coast Conference team, and three Daemen personnel picked up major awards for the season, the league announced this morning. First-year head coach
Eli Irizarry has been named the ECC Coach of the Year, senior
Maggie Burns (Louisville, Ky.) was voted Player of the Year, and junior
Olivia Alessi (East Aurora, N.Y.) was selected Co-Setter of the Year. Along with Burns and Alessi, Mercy's Yarianne Gonzalez was named Co-Setter of the Year, Ryann Frontera of Queens was selected Libero of the Year, and Molloy's Kaitlin Jordan earned Rookie of the Year.
Burns was joined on the All-Conference First Team by graduate student
Sam Logan (Eden, N.Y.) and junior
Vanessa Kuliga (Glenview, Ill.). Alessi and junior
Jasmine Brundage (East Aurora, N.Y.) earned Second Team All-ECC honors, while junior
Giselle Giraud (Orlando, Fla.) earned Honorable Mention honors. This is the second straight year that the Wildcats have placed six players on All-Conference teams, and also the second straight year that they earned the Player of the Year and Coach of the Year. Caitlyn Meyer earned 2021 ECC Player of the Year, and Stephanie Albano was named Coach of the Year in her final season at the helm of the Daemen women's volleyball team last season. Daemen has produced at least one all-conference selection in seven of the previous eight seasons (the 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19).
In his first season as the head coach of the Daemen women's volleyball team, Irizarry has led the Wildcats to an 18-5 regular season record with a perfect 10-0 record through ECC play this season. The Wildcats took home the ECC regular season title for the second consecutive year. Irizarry has the Wildcats positioned as the top seed in this weekend's ECC Championships, and ranked No. 3 in the NCAA Division II East Region poll.
Maggie Burns, a 5-foot-9 outside hitter, has had a stellar senior season, and is the third Daemen player to be named ECC Women's Volleyball Player of the Year, joining Meyer and Ashley Drzymala (2016). A three-time ECC Player of the Week selection, Burns is tied for the most kills on the team this season (213), while leading the team in kills per set (3.49). She ranks third on the team in digs (197), averaging 3.23 digs per set, and is currently fourth on the team in service aces this season (18). Burns leads the conference in kills per set, and ranks fourth in total kills on the season. She has notched double-digit kills in 13 of the 18 matches she has played in this season, and has registered eight double-doubles (kills-digs) on the year. Burns knocked down a career-high 21 kills (5.15 kills/set) in Daemen's 3-1 win over D'Youville on Oct. 15, and tallied a season-high 19 digs against Mercy in the ECC regular season finale on Nov. 5.
2021 ECC Setter of the Year
Olivia Alessi is back in the spotlight after a successful junior campaign. The 5-4 setter has played in 16 of Daemen's 23 matches this season, but leads the team in assists (465) to average 9.12 assists per set this year, she sits second on the team in service aces (24), and ranks fifth on the team in total digs with 137 (2.69 digs/set). A three-time ECC Setter of the Week, Alessi eclipsed her 1,000th career assist in her first match of the season. She has earned five double-doubles (assists-digs) this season, including tallying season-high 21 digs against Gannon in a non-conference match on Oct. 18, and a season-high 45 assists (11.25 assists/set) against Queens on Oct. 22. Alessi ranks third among the ECC leaders in assists per set, and fourth in the league in total assists heading into the postseason. She picks up Second Team All-ECC for the first time in her career.
Sam Logan, a 5-foot-10 outside hitter, collects First Team All-ECC honors for the first time in her career. The first Daemen player to be named the ECC Preseason Player of the Year, in Logan's final go with the Wildcats, she's played in 22 of the 23 matches this season, and is tied with Burns for the most kills on the team (213), averaging 3.0 kills per set. She ranks third on the team in service aces (22), and is second on the team in total digs (224), averaging 3.15 digs/set. Logan picked up ECC Player of the Week after totaling 32 kills and 33 digs in Daemen's three consecutive sweeps over D'Youville, Queens and Molloy to open up conference play. She notched a season-high 16 kills (5.33 kills/set) against Molloy on Oct. 23, and tallied a season-high .611 hitting percentage against Queens on Sept. 24, marking the second-highest hitting percentage in her career. Logan ranks third in the ECC in kills, and fourth in the league in kills per set.
A 6-foot middle blocker,
Vanessa Kuliga earns First Team All-ECC for the first time in her career. In her junior campaign, Kuliga surpassed her 100th career block this season and leads the Wildcats at the net with 36 of Daemen's 108 blocks on the year, to average 0.55 blocks per set. She is one of five Wildcats to post triple-digit kills on the season, totaling 134 kills for 2.06 kills per set. Kuliga ranks second in the ECC with her .299 hitting percentage on the year, and leads the team with 30 service aces. She has picked up ECC Defensive Player of the Year twice this season, and has notched double-digit kills in six matches. Kuliga recorded a career-high six aces against Le Moyne on Oct. 5, and has recorded multiple blocks in ten out of the 19 matches she's played in this year.
After becoming the first player in program history to be named ECC Libero of the Year last season,
Jasmine Brundage picks up Second Team All-ECC this year. The 5-foot-5 libero has played in 19 of Daemen's 23 matches this season, and leads the team with 240 digs (3.81 digs per set). A staple for the Wildcats on the court, Brundage earned double-digit digs in 11 matches, scooping up a season-high 24 digs twice this season, against Mercy on Nov. 5 and against the East Region's top-ranked team in American International on Sept. 9. She picked up ECC Defensive Player of the Week twice this season, including the final weekly award of the year on Monday with her 42-dig performance in the final two matches of the regular season last weekend.
In her first season at Daemen,
Giselle Giraud earns Honorable Mention in the conference. The 5-foot-11 junior out of Orlando started in 21 of Daemen's 23 matches this season and ranks second on the team in total kills with 144, averaging 2.22 kills per set. She trails only Kuliga in hitting percentage on the year, finishing the regular season with a .278, which ranks fourth in the ECC. Giraud has stood tall at the net this season, totaling 18 blocks, ranking her third on the team, but her 14 assisted blocks is just nine shy of Kuliga's team-leading 23. The outside hitter has notched double-digit kills five times, including a season-high 14 kills against Roberts Wesleyan on Oct. 26 in a game in which she earned her first double-double of the season, adding 15 digs to her stat line.
Daemen's all-conference honorees lead the Wildcats into postseason action tonight (Nov. 11). The top-seeded Wildcats will face fourth-seeded Mercy in the first of two ECC Championship semifinal matches tonight at Lumsden Gymnasium on the Daemen campus. Second-seeded Queens will take on third-seeded Molloy in the other semifinal. The two semifinal winners will meet Saturday (Nov. 12) for the ECC Tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
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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