Women's Bowling Competes For ECC Championship This Weekend

3/21/2024 11:00:00 AM

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

2024 EAST COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP
DATES: Friday, March 22 - Sunday, March 24
LOCATION: Rochester, N.Y. | AMF Dewey Garden Lanes

Championship Central | Digital Program | Tickets

BACK IN ACTION
The Daemen women's bowling team heads to Rochester, N.Y. to take part in the 2024 East Coast Conference Women's Bowling Championship.

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
The three-day tournament gets underway at 9 a.m. Friday. Daemen is one of nine 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 tournament resumes at 9 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 12TH IN NTCA DIVISION II/III POLL
Daemen is ranked No. 12 in the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) Division II/III Poll released Feb. 8. It marks the first regular season poll for the 2023-24 season. The Wildcats were ranked No. 11 in NTCA Division II/III preseason poll released this past October. The No. 11 ranking was the highest for the Wildcats in program history.

BACK AT THE HELM
Carrie Racsumberger returns for her sixth season as head coach at Daemen. She took the reins of the program just prior to the 2018-19 season and entered the 2023-24 season with a 176-144 career record. She guided the Wildcats to a program record 55 wins during the 2021-22 campaign. She recorded her 200th career win during the 2023 Daemen Storm Fall Classic. Danielle Milo, an Orchard Park native, enters her second season as an assistant coach.

RETURNING VETERANS
Daemen returns six student-athletes from last year's team, including All-ECC selections Caitlyn Nowak (West Seneca, N.Y.) and Mollie Gizicki (Brighton, Mich.). Additional returning bowlers include senior Emma Smith (Williamsville, N.Y.) and sophomores Bailey Glass (North Tonawanda, N.Y.), Mackenzie Hutchins (Wheatfield, N.Y.) and Kayla Richardson (Webster, N.Y.). Daemen closed out the 2022-23 season with a record of 47-32. The Wildcats reached the 40-win plateau for the third time in program history and came just three wins shy of reaching 50 wins for the second-straight season. The Wildcats competed in eight tournaments during the year and posted a top-four finish in six of the eight events--including first-place showings at the Grapevine Classic and the Daemen Storm Fall Classic. The Wildcats also traveled to Las Vegas in January to take part in the Stormin' Blue & White Vegas Classic, which featured several of the top programs in the country. Additional highlights of the season included dual match sweeps of rival Roberts Wesleyan University and nationally-ranked Saint Vincent College. Daemen capped the year by placing fourth out of 10 teams at the East Coast Conference Championships.

FRESH FACES
The team welcomes freshmen Brenna Forsha (Tonawanda, N.Y.), Sabrina Palmer (Waterloo, N.Y.), Cassidy Papero (Cheektowaga, N.Y.) and Chelsea Porga (Welland, Ont.) to the lineup. Forsha and Papero have both been named the East Coast Conference Rookie of the Week this season.

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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