Crosstown Rivalry On Tap For Women's Volleyball

10/23/2024 9:59:00 AM

By: CONTACT: Mary Margaret Johnson, Assistant Athletics Communications Director | mmjohnso@daemen.edu

REMATCH
The Daemen University women's volleyball team will travel to face crosstown rival D'Youville University on Thursday, Oct. 24 in a 6 PM tilt. The Saints won the first match up of the season 3-2 on Oct. 10, so the Wildcats will be looking to get revenge in the rematch. Daemen comes into Thursday with a 12-6 overall record and 4-2 record in East Coast Conference play, while the Saints are 7-12 overall and 3-2 in ECC matches.

LAST WEEK
The Wildcats went 1-1 on the week, dropping their final non-conference match of the season to Atlantic Region powerhouse Gannon University on Tuesday, 3-1, in a game where Daemen out-hit the Golden Knigths 59 to 47 but compiled 33 attack errors compared to just 14 for Gannon. The Golden Knights also used their height to their advantage, out-blocking the Wildcats 15 to 7 in the match. Graduate student right side Giselle Giraud (Orlando, Fla.) led the Wildcats offensively with a season-high 19 kills on 38 attacks for a .368 hitting percentage, while junior outside hitter Nahirka Malpica (Caguas, P.R.) had her sixth double-double of the season with 16 kills and 20 digs. Graduate student libero Jasmine Brundage (East Aurora, N.Y.) totaled 17 digs, and setters Avery Dole (Summerfield, N.C.) and Molly Ryan (Orchard Park, N.Y.) combined for 45 assists, with Dole totaling 28 and Ryan finishing with 17. Daemen bounced back from their Tuesday night loss and got back on track in conference play, topping Roberts Wesleyan 3-2 in a five-set thriller in Rochester. Three Wildcats totaled double-digit kills in the win, with Malpica leading all players with 22 kills on 55 swings while earning her second consecutive double-double with 18 digs. Senir middle Amelia Armstrong (River Falls, Wisc.) totaled 12 kills on 29 attacks, while freshman outside hitter Avery Craig (Tomball, Tex.) put up her best offensive performance of the season with a career-high 11 kills with zero errors on 27 swings for a team-high .407 hitting percentage. The freshman earned her first career double-double with 13 digs in the win. Brundage totaled 20+ digs for the sixth time this season and added a match-high five aces, while Dole totaled 30 assists and nine digs and Ryan had 18 assists and 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.

WEEKLY HONORS
For the second time this season, Nahirka Malpica picked up a weekly ECC award, earning her first career ECC Defensive Player of the Week honor. The junior outside hitter totaled 38 kills and 38 digs on the week, averaging 4.2 kills and digs per set.

ECC STANDINGS
All seven teams in the ECC have completed the first half of conference. As it stands, Queens College sits atop the league with a 5-1 record, while Daemen and D'Youville are tied for second at 4-2. Mercy University and Molloy University are tied for fourth (3-3) while Roberts Wesleyan University (2-4) and St. Thomas Aquinas College (0-6) are the final two teams in the league. The top four teams make it into the ECC Championship Tournament, held at the highest seed on Nov. 22-23.

PUSH FOR THE POSTSEASON
With six regular season matches left on the schedule, the five-time ECC regular season champions will have to play their best ball in the final three weeks of the season. In their next two match ups, Daemen will face off against the two teams that handed them losses in conference play, first taking on D'Youville on Thursday after dropping the first meeting on Oct. 10 which marked the first time the Wildcats lost to the Saints in series history. The Wildcats will then host Queens next Saturday, Nov. 2, in a rematch of Oct. 5 when they lost to the Knights, 3-1, and snapped a 37-match win streak, the second-longest conference win streak in all of Division II women's volleyball at the time. That was the first conference loss for Daemen since Nov. 10, 2019.

UP NEXT
Daemen will host Queens and Molloy next weekend, Nov. 2-3, at Lumsden Gymnasium. The Wildcats and Knights will play on Saturday, Nov. 2 in a noon game, and will take on the Lions on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 11 AM.

THE SAINTS
D'Youville is tied with Daemen at second in the conference with a 4-2 ECC record and is 7-12 overall on the year. The Saints' two conference losses came in back-to-back games at Molloy and Queens back on Oct. 5-6, and they followed those up with the program's first ever win against Daemen on Oct. 10. Averaging 11.2 kills per set, the Saints are led offensively by 5-foot-10 sophomore outside hitter Madeline O'Brien with 191 kills (2.89 kills/set) and 5-foot-9 graduate student outside hitter Alex Darby who has 176 kills (2.67 kills/set). The Wildcats held O'Brien to seven kills on 24 attacks in the first meeting, but it was Darby that led the Saints that night with a double-double, totaling 17 kills and 13 digs. Graduate student Emma Wlostowski leads the Saints at the baseline with 38 aces (fourth in the ECC) and 282 digs (4.21 digs/set) which also ranks fourth in the ECC. Wlostowski totaled 17 digs and 3 aces against the Wildcats.

SERIES HISTORY
The Wildcats are 10-1 all time against the Saints.

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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