Women's Lacrosse Hosts Walsh In First Ever Home Game Tuesday

2/27/2023 5:27:00 PM

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

Game #2
Walsh Cavaliers (0-2, 0-0 G-MAC) vs. Daemen Wildcats (1-0, 0-0 ECC)
DATE: Tuesday, Feb. 28
TIME: 3 p.m.
LOCATION: Buffalo, N.Y. | Medaille Sports Complex
LIVE STATS: via Daemen Athletics / LIVE VIDEO: via ECC Network

RIGHT BACK AT IT
After playing their first ever game Sunday, the Daemen women's lacrosse team will play its first ever home game tomorrow (Feb. 28) when the Wildcats play host to Walsh (Ohio) University. 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.

HISTORY MADE
Daemen made a successful debut Sunday afternoon, as the Wildcats posted a 14-10 victory at Lake Erie College in the first game in program history. 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.

FIRST GAME, FIRST WIN
Turns out it was worth the wait, as Daemen picked up a victory in the first game in program history following a 14-10 victory at Lake Erie College Sunday. The long awaited game came over a year and a half after Daemen officially announced it was adding women's lacrosse as a varsity sport in June of 2021. Junior Dana Bacher (Hamburg, N.Y.) scored five goals and graduate student Casey Decatur (Apollo Beach, Fla.) added three goals and four assists to lead the way today. Freshman Blair Pfohl (Lockport, N.Y.) went the distance in goal for the Wildcats and made three saves to earn the win in her collegiate debut. Lake Erie, which is a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, dropped to 1-1 on the year. Sophomore Shannon Smith led the hosts with four goals, while freshman Ainsley Sutter made eight saves. Freshman Kylie Miranto (North Tonawanda, N.Y.) will get credit for scoring the first goal in program history, as her goal off a pass from Decatur just 1:15 into the game gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. The score remained 1-0 until LEC evened the score at 1-1 with 8:56 left in the first quarter. Bacher scored the first of her five goals less than a minute later, and Daemen would take a 5-2 lead into the second quarter. The Wildcats scored four unanswered goals over the first six minutes of the second quarter to take a 9-2 lead. Daemen would take a 10-3 lead into halftime. LEC outscored the Wildcats 3-1 during the third quarter and the hosts later cut the Daemen lead to three goals, 12-9, after Smith scored an extra-man goal with 8:24 to play in the fourth quarter. Daemen regained control after Decatur and sophomore Camryn Day (Hamburg, N.Y.) scored back-to-back goals a minute apart to give the Wildcats a 14-9 lead.

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 returns to action Friday (March 3) when it heads to Albany, N.Y. to face The College of Saint Rose in a non-league game.

SCOUTING WALSH
Walsh is a NCAA Division II affiliate and a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). Walsh returns 16 players from last year's team that went 13-5 overall and 9-1 in G-MAC play. The Cavaliers claimed their second-straight G-MAC Tournament title following a 17-6 victory over Findlay in the tournament championship game. Walsh was picked to finish first in the G-MAC preseason poll and opened the 2023 season with non-league losses to the University of Indianapolis (15-9) and Mercyhurst (13-12). Three of the top four goal scorers from last year return, including all-conference selections Melinda Maers, Lindsay Hindman and Isabella Kelty. Maers ranked second on the team in goals (44) and totaled 50 points last year. Hindman totaled 40 goals and 43 points, while Kelty led the team in assists (34) and ranked second in points (66). Junior goalkeeper Kathleen Mendenhall started all 18 games last year and earned third team all-conference honors. Maers and freshman Carly King have each totaled a team-high five goals this season. Mendelhall has started both games in net and made 17 saves in the loss to UIndy.

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 Instagram at @DaemenWLAX

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