Women's Tennis Faces Top-Seeded Queens In ECC Tournament

Daemen Making Fourth Straight Appearance In Conference Tournament

10/26/2023 3:42:00 PM

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

Match #12
Daemen Wildcats (5-6) vs. Queens Knights (7-0)
DATE: Friday, Oct. 27
TIME: 9 a.m.
LOCATION: Flushing, N.Y. | Queens College Tennis Center
LIVE VIDEO: ECC Network

BACK IN ACTION
The Daemen women's tennis team will square off against Queens in semifinal round action of the 2023 East Coast Conference Championship tournament. Queens is the regular season champion and No. 1 seed. Daemen claimed the fourth and final seed. The Wildcats are making their fourth-straight appearance in the ECC Tournament.

THE WILDCATS
The Wildcats closed out the regular season with losses to Queens and St. Thomas Aquinas last weekend. Head coach Richard Greco, Jr. returns five players from last year's team and the 2023-24 roster features four newcomers (two transfers, two freshmen). Senior Frida Rubio (San Diego, Calif.) and Kitsa Scime (Williamsville, N.Y.) top the list of returning players. Rubio enters her fourth season with the program this fall. The ECC Rookie of the Year and second team All-ECC pick as a freshman in 2021-22, she is 5-7 in singles play so far this season and recorded her 29th career singles win during the win over Fredonia. Scime enjoyed an outstanding second season with the program last year. Playing primarily No. 2 singles throughout the year, she went 15-6 in singles play. Her 15 wins last year rank as the second most in a single season in program history, behind only Christina Stasiuk who posted 18 wins during the 2017-18 season. Scime is 11-4 in singles play this year and recorded her 34th career singles win during the loss to STAC this past weekend. She is now 29-11 in her last 40 singles matches dating back to the end of her freshman season. Junior Yinett Del Leon (Cape Coral, Fla.) is 5-10 in singles play this year, while sophomore Carly Armitage (Rochester, N.Y.) is 5-7. Freshman Maya Chon (Wichita, Kan.) picked up her first career singles win during the season-opening Allegheny Invitational over Labor Day Weekend and is 4-6 in singles play thus far. Junior transfer Emily Jablonski (Alden, N.Y.) is 3-9 in singles play.

THE KNIGHTS
Queens closed out the regular season undefeated and claimed the ECC regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in the ECC Championship tournament. The Knights went 11-8 overall (3-2 ECC) last year and lost to STAC in the championship match of the ECC Tournament. Maja Makai, Caroline Hany-Fawzy, Apolline Lamy and Saga Berggren all earned All-ECC honors.

SERIES HISTORY
Friday's match will mark the 11th all-time meeting between the two schools. Queens has prevailed in each of the previous 10 meetings.

SCIME EARNS ALL-ECC HONORS
Kitsa Scime was honored by the ECC for her outstanding play this season, as she was one of 12 players to earn all-conference recognition. The official announcement of All-ECC teams was made today in a press release from the conference's headquarters on Long Island. Scime was one of six first-team selections. She becomes the first player in program history to collect first-team All-ECC honors. A second-team selection last year, she also becomes the first two-time all-conference selection in program history. Scime, current teammate Frida Rubio (San Diego, Calif.) and former standouts Christina Stasiuk and Karli Hollins are 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.

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

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 tennis program on Twitter and Facebook at @DaemenTennis

Print Friendly Version