The Daemen University women's soccer team reported to campus and began their preseason training this week. Here are a few things to know about the 2022 Wildcats...
1. Veteran head coach
Dan Dolan returns for his 14th season at the helm. The Wildcats finished with a 9-6-1 overall record and a 7-1-1 mark in East Coast Conference play last year. The seven conference wins were the most by the Wildcats since Daemen joined the ECC in 2013. The longest-tenured and winningest coach in program history, Dolan enters the year with a 110-98-12 career record. Daemen has gone 39-27-6 over the past five years and has advanced to post-season play each of the last three seasons (not including the COVID-shortened 2020 season).
2. The Wildcats open the
2022 season by playing four of their first five games at home, before hitting a stretch of seven-straight road games. Dolan has put together a challenging non-conference schedule that features five teams that advanced to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II Tournament last year. The Wildcats face their biggest challenge of the season in the season-opener when they host perennial power The College of Saint Rose at Karrer Field on Saturday, Aug. 27. The Golden Knights have advanced to the NCAA Tournament 16 times over the past 19 years and are ranked #2 in the 2022
United Soccer Coaches Division II preseason poll. Last year they posted an 18-2-4 record and advanced all the way to the NCAA Tournament national championship game, where they fell to Grand Valley State in double overtime. Additional 2022 non conference opponents that advanced to the 2021 NCAA Tournament include Saint Anselm College, Southern New Hampshire University, Cedarville University and Mercyhurst University. Daemen opens up conference play by hosting Mercy College, another 2021 NCAA Tournament team, on Saturday, Sept, 10. The Wildcats will square off against defending ECC Tournament champion Molloy College on the road on Oct. 8.
3. Daemen returns 20 players from its 2021 roster, including six who collected All-ECC honors last year and eight who were part of the 2019 NCAA tournament team that finished 11-4-3--the best season in the program's NCAA era (2015 – present.). Experience is abundant, as the team features two graduate students, seven seniors and five juniors. The team's top five scorers from last year all return to the pitch this fall. Senior
Tatyjana Scalisi (Williamsville, N.Y.) and sophomore
Alyssa Diaz (Rochester, N.Y.) accounted for 13 of the team's 34 goals last year and both earned first team All-ECC honors. Scalisi also earned all-region honors, while Diaz became the first player in program history to be named the
ECC Rookie of the Year. Additional offense can be expected from senior
Faye Panagopoulos (Kenmore, N.Y.), junior
Brooke Amato (Grand Island, N.Y.) and graduate student
Grace Stranahan (Grand Island, N.Y.). Panagopoulos and Amato both netted five goals last year, while Stranahan totaled three goals and three assists. All-conference defenders
Julia Eichel (Grand Island, N.Y.) and
Baylin Tighe (Tonawanda, N.Y.) return after heading up a backline that surrendered just 20 goals in 16 games last year. Senior goalkeeper
Tori DeLappi (Medina, Ohio) is coming off an all-conference junior season in which she averaged five saves a game and posted a 1.27 goals against average.
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.
Follow the Daemen women's soccer program on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @DaemenWSOC
