Women's Bowling Heads To Long Island This Weekend For ECC Championship

3/23/2023 10:51:00 AM

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

2023 EAST COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP
DATES: Friday, March 24 - Sunday, March 26
LOCATION: Coram, N.Y. | Coran Country Lanes

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BACK IN ACTION
The Daemen women's bowling team returns to action for the first time in over a month when it heads to Coram, N.Y. to take part in the 2023 East Coast Conference Women's Bowling Championship.

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
The three-day tournament gets underway at 8 a.m. Friday. Daemen is one of 10 teams in the tournament field and will be seeking the first ECC title in program history. The Wildcats advanced to the final round in 2021, but fell to rival Roberts Wesleyan. The tournament will open with five rounds of Baker format matches as teams compete in a round-robin style for later seeding purposes. Once pool play is complete, teams will be seeded and shift to double elimination bracket play. The first match of bracket play concludes Friday's action at approximately 3:35 p.m. The tournament resumes at 8 a.m. Saturday with double elimination matches occurring throughout the day. The championship match will take place Sunday. The tournament champion earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Bowling Championship.

WILDCATS RANKED 11TH IN NTCA DIVISION II/III POLL
Daemen is ranked No. 11 in the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) Division II/III Poll released Feb. 10. It marks the first regular season poll for the 2022-23 season. The Wildcats were receiving votes in NTCA Division II/III preseason poll released this past October. The No. 11 ranking is the highest for the Wildcats in program history.

LAST TIME OUT
Daemen placed fourth out of 11 teams at the Wildcat Division II Invitational last month. The tournament featured six teams (Caldwell University, Daemen, Kutztown University, Mercyhurst University, Molloy University and Wilmington University) that are ranked or receiving votes in the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) Division II/III Poll released Feb. 10. The tournament was hosted by Wilmington. Daemen entered the final day in second place in the standings and opened the day with a 4-2 loss to top-seeded Mercyhurst. Daemen then suffered a 4-1 loss to Chestnut Hill, which put the Wildcats in the third/fourth place match against Caldwell. Daemen suffered its third loss of the day, 4-1, and finished in fourth place. Mercyhurst claimed the title following a 4-2 win over Chestnut Hill in the championship match. Daemen, which was the defending tournament champion, earned its No. 2 seed in today's bracket round after posting 9,340 pins over the first two rounds. Mercyhurst sat atop the standings after the first two rounds with 9,385 total pins. Senior Caitlyn Nowak (West Seneca, N.Y.) placed second among all bowlers with a 213.80 average during Saturday's traditional round play and was named to the all-tournament team. Seniors Paige Bartosz (West Seneca, N.Y.) and Nicole Bergeron (Lima, N.Y.) also finished among the Top-10 bowlers during the traditional matches on Saturday. Bartosz finished sixth (209.20) and Bergeron placed 10^th(197.20).20 event.

BACK AT THE HELM
Carrie Racsumberger returns for her fifth season as head coach at Daemen. She took the reins of the program just prior to the 2018-19 season and entered the 2022-23 season with a 129-112 career record, including a program record 55 wins during the 2021-22 campaign. Danielle Milo, an Orchard Park native, enters her first season as an assistant coach.

RETURNING VETERANS
Daemen returns six bowlers from a solid 2021-22 campaign in which they posted a program-record 55 wins and were included in the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) Division II/III national poll for the first time in program history. The Wildcats also claimed tournament titles at the Brother Patrick Lacey Memorial Tournament hosted by St. Vincent College and the Wildcat Division II Invitational hosted by Wilmington University. Seniors Caitlyn Nowak (West Seneca, N.Y.) and Paige Bartosz (West Seneca, N.Y.), who both earned All-East Coast Conference honors last year, top the list of returning bowlers. Graduate student Christina Aldridge (Webster, N.Y.), senior Nicole Bergeron (Lima, N.Y.) and juniors Mollie Gizicki (Brighton, Mich.) and Emma Smith (Williamsville, N.Y.) also return.

FRESH FACES
The team welcomes freshmen Bailey Glass (North Tonawanda, N.Y.), Mackenzie Hutchins (Wheatfield, N.Y.), Olivia Dauer (Orchard Park, N.Y.) and Kayla Richardson (Webster, N.Y.) to the lineup.

POLL POSITION
Daemen has been picked third in the 2022-23 East Coast Conference Women's Bowling Preseason Coaches' Poll. The No. 3 ranking is the highest for Daemen in the eight-year history of the program. Daemen's previous high ranking in the ECC preseason poll came prior to the 2018-19 season when the Wildcats were voted to finish fourth. Adelphi edged out Mercyhurst for the top spot, as the Panthers collected five first-place votes and totaled 87 points. Mercyhurst received three first place votes and totaled 84 points. Daemen earned 73 points, while Roberts Wesleyan (59) and Kutztown (58) rounded out the top five. D'Youville and Molloy tied for sixth with 57 points, while the remainder of the poll includes conference newcomers Bryant (38) and Saint Anselm (19) and St. Thomas Aquinas (18).

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 bowling program on Twitter and Facebook at @DaemenBowling

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