Abby Ryan goes for the kill against D'Youville

Max Sacco

Women's Volleyball To Play Mercy, STAC In Final Regular Season Road Trip

11/8/2024 12:44:00 PM

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

LAST ROAD TRIP
The Daemen University women's volleyball team will hit the road for the final time in the regular season to play a pair of matches downstate at Mercy University and St. Thomas Aquinas College this weekend. The Wildcats, who come into their last road trip of the season with a 15-6 overall record and 7-2 record in East Coast Conference play, will take on Mercy on Saturday and STAC on Sunday with both games scheduled for noon. The Mavericks are 12-8 on the year and 5-3 in ECC matches while the Spartans come in with a 7-14 record and 1-7 record in ECC play.

LAST WEEKEND
The Wildcats won both matches in a pivotal final home weekend of play, taking down the top team in the league, Queens College, 3-0 on Friday night and beating Molloy University 3-2 in a highly contested five-set match. The Knights, who beat Daemen 3-1 earlier this season, were out-hit 43 to 32 on the day. Daemen graduate student right side Giselle Giraud (Orlando, Fla.) led the Cats with 12 kills and was the sole Wildcat to tally double-digit kills. Graduate student libero Jasmine Brundage (East Aurora, N.Y.) posted a match-high 18 digs and added six assists, one ace and one kill in the win. In Sunday's match up with Molloy, four Wildcats hit in the double-digits today, with Giraud again leading the Wildcats offensively with 15 kills on 39 attacks. Junior outside hitter Nahirka Malpica (Caguas, P.R.) finished with her ninth double-double of the season, totaling 11 kills and a career-high 30 digs while adding two aces and one solo block. Senior middle hitter Amelia Armstrong (River Falls, Wisc.) posted 12 kills with just two errors on 21 swings for a team-high .476 hitting percentage. Armstrong added two solo blocks, three block assists and three digs on the day to tie a team-high 15.5 points. Freshman right side Payton Gaylor (Bowmanville, Ont.) hit a career-high 12 kills with just one error on 24 attacks for a .458 hitting percentage while adding a team-high three solo blocks, four digs and one block assist for 15.5 points. Senior setter Avery Dole (Summerfield, Wisc.) posted a double-double for the fourth time this season with 27 assists and 12 digs. Sophomore setter Molly Ryan (Orchard Park, N.Y.) totaled 20 assists, a career-high eight aces and five digs. Brundage totaled 15 digs, three assists, two aces and one kill.

ECC STANDINGS
With just two weeks left in the season, the race for the postseason is coming down to the wire! Daemen and Queens sit atop the ECC as both teams have a 7-2 conference record. If the Wildcats and Knights both win their final three games, Daemen owns the tiebreaker as the Wildcats lost to Queens 3-1, but Daemen beat Queens 3-0. Mercy is in sole possession of third at 5-3 with four games left to play, but D'Youville is 5-4 with one more game played than the Mavs. Molloy (3-6), Roberts Wesleyan (2-6) and STAC (1-7) are the final three teams in the conference. The top four teams go to the postseason.

REGIONAL RANKINGS
The Wildcats are one of ten teams in the East REgion listed as under consideration for NCAA bids in the first NCAA Division II women's volleyball rankings, as released by the regional advisory committee with games played through Nov. 3. The East Region consists of the top teams from the ECC, the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, and the Northeast-10 Conference, and the regional rankings are used to determine at-large bids to the East Regional portion of the NCAA Tournament following conference tournaments at the end of the season. Listing the teams in alphabetical order for the first regional rankings, the 10 teams in the East Region are Adelphi (15-2 regional record), American International (12-3), Bentley (16-2), Daemen (11-5), Georgian Court (14-6), Mercy (12-7), Molloy (12-9), New Haven (16-5), Post (16-8) and Queens (17-8).

STAT CATS
Daemen has out-killed opponents 1130 to 810 on the season and lead the conference with 13.29 kills per set on the year while also leading the ECC in points (17.13/set), assists (12.24/set), service aces (2.38/set), opponent assists (8.64/set), opponent kills (9.53/set) and opponent service aces (1.84/set). Four Wildcats have double-digit kills on the year and several Wildcats rank in the top-10 statistically in the ECC. Giraud leads the Wildcats and ranks seventh in the ECC with 252 kills (2.96/set) while sitting fifth in the league with a .259 hitting percentage. Armstrong ranks third in the league in hitting percentage (.300) and is third on the team with 176 kills (2.15/set) while leading the Wildcats with 52 blocks (0.63/set), good for ninth in blocks in the league. Malpica is second on the team and fifth in the ECC with 241 kills (3.01/set) while ranking sixth in points (3.56/set) and eighth in digs with 250 total (3.13/set). Graduate student Abby Ryan (Orchard Park, N.Y.) is second in the ECC in kills (3.55/set) and is fourth on the team with 174 total. Dole ranks fifth in the league in assists (6.91/set) and sixth in aces (0.51/set). Brundage s second in the ECC in digs (4.44/set).

UP NEXT
The Wildcats will wrap up regular season play next week as they play host to Roberts Wesleyan on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

THE MAVERICKS
Mercy started the season off hot and continued the success throughout the season and comes into this weekend with a12-8 overall record and a 5-3 record in ECC play. The Mavericks lead the ECC in hitting percentage (.228) and opponent digs (11/set). 6-foot-1 junior outside hitter Gabriela Bieniek leads Mercy offensively with 237 kills and ranks third in the ECC with 3.45 kills/set. 5-foot-10 freshman outside Grace Dilena ranks second on the team with 231 kills (3.0 kills/set is sixth in the conference) and ranks eighth in the league with a .240 hitting percentage. Graduate student middle blocker Julia Pomerleau leads the league with a .399 hitting percentage and ranks third on the team with 183 kills (2.41 kills/set) and leads the team with 62 blocks (0.83/set ranks third in the league) while 6-foot-1 middle blocker Janneliz Rodriguez Fuentes is second on the team with 36 blocks and is fourth in the league with 0.82 blocks per set.

SERIES HISTORY
The Wildcats are 19-3 all-time against the Mavericks and are riding an eight-match win streak.

THE SPARTANS
Playing in their inaugural season in 2023, STAC finished with a 5-15 overall record and went 1-11 in ECC play. This season, the Spartans are 7-14 overall and 1-7 in conference matches while averaging 10.34 kills per set and leads the league in opponent blocks (1.61/set) and opponent service aces (1.84/set). Freshman outside hitter Evie Paalman ranks fourth in the league with 3.19 kills per set and leads the team with 249 total kills and 221 digs (2.83 digs/set.) Anna Gazzerro and Greta Santini rank fourth and ninth in the league in service aces, with Gazzerro averaging 0.55/set (28 total) and Santini at 0.46/set (36 total).

SERIES HISTORY
Daemen is 3-0 against the Spartans all-time.

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 University women's volleyball program on Twitter and Instagram at @DaemenWVB.

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