THE WAIT IS OVER: Women's Lacrosse Makes Program Debut Sunday At Lake Erie

2/25/2023 3:00:00 PM

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

Game #1
Daemen Wildcats (0-0, 0-0 ECC) vs. Lake Erie Storm (1-0, 0-0 G-MAC)
DATE: Sunday, Feb. 26
TIME: 4 p.m.
LOCATION: Painesville, Ohio | Jack Britt Memorial Stadium

MAKING HISTORY
The wait is finally over. The Daemen women's lacrosse team will play its first ever game Sunday (Feb.26) when the Wildcats head to Lake Erie College for a non-conference tilt. The 2023 campaign will mark the inaugural season for the program. Daemen officially announced it was adding women's lacrosse as a varsity sport in June of 2021.

GUIDING THE SHIP
First-year head coach Dominique Hamman will head up a 19-player roster that includes 11 freshmen, four sophomores, two juniors and two graduate students. Prior to Daemen, Hamman spent two seasons as a graduate assistant coach at Grand Valley State and played collegiately at Division I Central Michigan, where she was a member of CMU's inaugural team in 2016.

LIMITED EXPERIENCE
Daemen's rosters features three players with collegiate experience. Graduate student defender Hayley Latvala (Grand Island, N.Y.) played four seasons (2018-21) at Gannon University. She played in 44 of a possible 48 games and was in the starting lineup 38 times. Graduate student forward Casey Decatur (Apollo Beach, Fla.) played three seasons (2018-20) at Division I Saint Bonaventure and played in 29 of a possible 41 games over her career. Sophomore defender Emma Fenwick (Buffalo, N.Y.) played in nine games as rookie at John Carroll University last spring.

POLL POSITION
Daemen was picked to finish sixth in the East Coast Conference preseason poll following a vote of the league's seven head coaches. Mercy College, which has played in each of the last five ECC Tournament title games and claimed the conference championship in 2019 and 2022, collected six of the seven first place votes and topped the poll with 48 points. Roberts Wesleyan University, which lost to Mercy in last year's ECC Tournament championship game, earned the other first place vote and placed second with 42 points. Molloy University (35), D'Youville University (29) and Saint Thomas Aquinas College (18) round out the top five. Daemen collected 14 points and earned the No. 6 spot ahead of the University of the District of Columbia (10).

ON THE HORIZON
Daemen will play its first ever home game Tuesday (Feb. 28) afternoon when they host Walsh University in a non-league game. The Wildcats will play their five home games at the Medaille Sports Complex at Buffalo Color Park while Daemen awaits construction of the West Royal Park athletic complex.

SCOUTING LAKE ERIE
Lake Erie is a NCAA Division II affiliate and a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). LEC returns 12 players from last year's team that went 3-11 overall and 2-8 in G-MAC play. LEC was picked to finish fifth in the G-MAC preseason poll and opened the 2023 season with a 15-7 win over NAIA member Thomas More on Feb. 17. Junior Cassidy Bourne led the way with three goals and two assists, while freshman Madelyn Goodrich added two goals and three assists in her collegiate debut. Graduate student Cynthia Saxby and sophomores Shannon Smith and Erin Snyder also scored three times. Freshman Ainsley Sutter went the distance in goal for the Storm and made five saves. Bourne (13 gls, 4 asts) and Saxby (15 gls, 2 asts) both totaled a team-high 17 points last year.

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 lacrosse program on Twitter and Facebook at @DaemenWLAX

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