Women's Lacrosse Hosts Roberts Wesleyan In Home Finale Tuesday

4/17/2023 10:27:00 AM

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

Game #15
Daemen Wildcats (7-7, 2-2 ECC) vs. Roberts Wesleyan Redhawks (8-5, 2-1 ECC)
DATE: Tuesday, April 18
TIME: 2 p.m.
LOCATION: Buffalo, N.Y. | Medaille Sports Complex
LIVE STATS: via Daemen Athletics / LIVE VIDEO: via ECC Network

HOME FINALE
Daemen will play the final home game of its inaugural season on Tuesday when the Wildcats play host to Roberts Wesleyan University in an East Coast Conference game.

SENIOR SALUTE
Graduate students Casey Decatur (Apollo Beach, Fla.) and Hayley Latvala (Grand Island, N.Y.) will be honored before the game in recognition of the final home game of their career.

HISTORY MADE
Daemen made a successful program debut back on Feb. 26, 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 roster features only 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 on Feb. 26. 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. 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, 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.

BY THE NUMBERS
Several Daemen players rank high among the East Coast Conference statistical leaders. Graduate student Casey Decatur (Apollo Beach, Fla.) leads the league in assists (36), ranks seventh in goals (34) and second in total points (70). Junior Dana Bacher (Hamburg, N.Y.) ranks third in goals (42) and sixth in points (51). Freshman Ella Bouley (Auburn, N.Y.) ranks 11th in goals (28) and 18th in points (34). Sophomore Camryn Day (Hamburg, N.Y.) ranks 18th in goals (22) and 19th in points (30). Freshman Blair Pfohl (Lockport, N.Y.) ranks fifth in ground balls (32) and third in total saves (106). Day ranks first (97) and Bouley ranks fourth (59) in draw controls.

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 is idle until April 29 when it closes out the regular season with an ECC game at Mercy College.

SCOUTING ROBERTS WESLEYAN
Roberts Wesleyan returns 13 players--including six 2022 all-conference selections--from last year's team that went 9-6 overall and 4-1 in ECC play. The Redhawks advanced to the championship game of the 2022 ECC Tournament where they suffered a 19-12 loss to top-seeded Mercy College. RWU has won three-straight games and is coming off an 18-3 non-league win over Post on Saturday. Newcomer Annie Mulhall, a transfer from Division I East Carolina, has made an immediate impact with a team-high 48 goals and 52 points. She ranks second among the ECC leaders in goals. Junior Alexis Grant returns after earning first team All-ECC honors last year. She had five goals in the win over Post and has totaled 34 goals and 46 points. Additional production has come from sophomore Emma Blumenstock (26 gls, 14 asts) and newcomers Tori Lammes (16 gls, 24 asts) and Ella Dossier (9 gls, 28 ast). All-conference defenders Madelyn Robinson, Caitlin Tucker and Shay DeRoo also return. Sophomore Shawna Lesmerises has started all 13 games in goal and ranks second in the ECC in both goals against average (9.42) and save percentage (.418).

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.

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