Avery Dole sets a ball at the Wildcat Regional Invitational

Women's Volleyball Opens ECC Play With Home Matches Against Molloy, Queens

9/25/2025 12:32:00 PM

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

HOME SWEET HOME
The Daemen University women's volleyball team returns to Lumsden Gymnasium this weekend as they open up East Coast Conference play with a pair of matches against Molloy University and Queens College. The Wildcats will host Molloy on Saturday in a 1 PM match up and wrap up the weekend with an 11 AM match against Queens on Sunday. Daemen comes into the weekend with a 4-7 record, while Molloy is 7-4 overall and Queens is 6-6 on the year.

LAST WEEKEND
The Wildcats went 2-2 at the Wildcat Regional Invitational hosted by Wilmington University in New Castle, Delaware. In a tournament featuring teams exclusively from the three East Region conferences of the ECC, Northeast-10 and Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, the Wildcats opened the tournament with a 1-3 loss to Holy Family (CACC) on Friday morning. Daemen narrowly out-hit the Tigers 55-51 in the match but Holy Family had the leg up in hitting percentage (.301 compared to .204 for Daemen) and committed just 14 attack errors to Daemen's 27. The Wildcats bounced back with a 3-0 sweep over Franklin Pierce (NE10) in their second match on Friday afternoon after dominating offensively with 47 kills to FPU's 23 while hitting a season-high .313 in the win. Daemen opened Saturday with a dogfight against Adelphi (NE10), dropping a five-set match, 2-3, to the Panthers, but finished the weekend off with a victory over host Wilmington, 3-1, in the final match of the tournament after eight Wildcats tallied kills to out-hit Wilmington 56 to 32 in the win.

WEEKLY AWARDS
Freshman outside hitter Keira Mullen (Farmingdale, N.J.) was named the ECC Rookie of the Week for the first time this season after her performance over the weekend. In Daemen's 2-2 weekend at the Wildcat Regional Invitational, Mullen led the Wildcats offensively over four games, totaling 63 kills (3.93 kills/set) over 16 sets while hitting .281 on the weekend. She was the only Daemen player to hit in the double-digits in each match and posted a career-high 19 kills over Franklin Pierce after notching her first career double-double (kills-digs) in the first match on Friday, totaling 14 kills and 10 digs in the loss to Holy Family. On Saturday, the freshman outside hitter totaled 12 kills in Daemen's 2-3 loss to Adelphi but rebounded with a resounding team-high 18 kills for a career-high .483 hitting percentage. Mullen finished the weekend adding 22 digs, seven total blocks and six service aces to her stat line. She is the first Wildcat to earn a women's volleyball weekly award this season.

STAT CATS
In four matches at the Wildcat Regional Invitational, Daemen hit consistently better in each match over the weekend than their previous two tournaments, averaging 13.4 kills per set (Daemen hit an average of 10.9 kills per set in their first seven matches of the season) and averaged a .232 hitting percentage over four matches compared to hitting .081 over three matches in their own Wildcat Classic tournament and .113 in four matches at the season opening Ashland University Invitational.

Keira Mullen led the Wildcats offensively over the weekend with 63 kills (3.93 kills/set) while senior outside hitter Nahirka Malpica (Caguas, P.R.) added 51 kills (3.18 kills/set) over four matches and sophomore right side Payton Gaylor (Bowmanville, Ont.) chipped in 39 kills (2.43/set). Defensively, freshman Solé Rancy (Columbus, Ohio) totaled 24 blocks (1.5 blocks/set), including a career-high eight blocks -- three solo, five assisted -- in Daemen's loss to Holy Family on Friday. Rancy leads the ECC with 1.15 blocks/set this season.

CONFERENCE DOMINATION
Winners of the last four ECC regular season titles and three of the last four ECC Tournament championships, Daemen has put together an impressive conference record, going 43-3 in ECC play over the past four seasons with three undefeated conference seasons (2021-23). Since winning the program's first ECC regular season title in 2016, the Wildcats have an 84-20 record in regular season conference play. Last season's 9-3 record marked the first time Daemen had dropped a conference regular season match since the abbreviated 2020 season.

UP NEXT
The Wildcats will host crosstown rival D'Youville next Wednesday, Oct. 1 at Lumsden Gymnasium for a 6 PM match up.

SCOUTING THE LIONS
Entering the season ranked fifth in the 2025 ECC Preseason Poll after going 14-12 overall and 5-7 in conference play in 2024, Molloy started off this season hot, winning six of their first seven matches and come into this weekend's ECC opener with a 7-4 overall record. The Lions lead the league in points (16.9 per set), kills (13.24 per set), hitting percentage (.204), assists (12.3 per set), and digs (14.92 per set) and have a balanced offense with four players totaling 80+ kills on the year. Freshman outside hitter Haven Trechter leads the Lions offensively so far with 97 kills (2.62/set) along with junior outside hitter Erin Stanley who has 95 kills (2.57/set). Graduate student setter Julia Zalta averages 6.1 assists/set and adds 84 kills (2.27/set) on the year while sophomore outside Isabella Rios has chipped in an additional 82 kills (2.22/set) this season. Senior middle blocker Ilaria Micol Chiericati is Molloy's biggest threat for the block with 32 total (0.86/set) on the year.

SERIES HISTORY
The Wildcats own a 22-5 all-time record over the Lions and have won the last 11 matches.

SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS
Queens is coming off the program's best season since 2008 after going 19-11 and 9-3 in ECC play to share the ECC regular season title with Daemen last year. This season, the Knights have opened up the year with a 6-7 record. Ranked fourth in the ECC preseason poll, Queens is averaging 11 kills per set and are led offensively by freshman setter Kylynn White who has 143 kills (2.8/set), five double-doubles (kills-assists) and one triple-double (kills-assists-digs) on her stat-line this season. White also leads the ECC with 0.81 aces/set this year (38 total). Senior outside hitter Kendall Conrad is second on the team in kills with 127 (2.49/set) and ranks third on the team with 32 blocks (0.63/set) this season. Senior middle blocker Maya Angelova leads the Knights at the net with 44 blocks (0.83/set), good for fourth in the league.

SERIES HISTORY
Daemen is 18-5 all-time against Queens. The Wildcats and Knights split their regular season match ups last season with Daemen falling 1-3 on the road but beating Queens 3-0 at home.

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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