SPARKILL, N.Y. -- The Daemen University women's volleyball team won their East Coast Conference opener, 3-0 (27-25, 25-20, 25-17) on the road against St. Thomas Aquinas on Saturday. The Wildcats finished with advantages in kills (36-26), service aces (12-4) and hitting percentage (.142-.068). Daemen improves to 9-6 on the year and 1-0 in ECC action while STAC drops to 5-8 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
After the Spartans moved in front 11-8, the Wildcats pulled even on two attack errors and a
Payton Gaylor (Bowmanville, Ont.) kill, then went ahead 12-11 on another Gaylor kill. An ace from
Audrey Johnson (Mequon, Wisc.) helped stretch the lead to 15-12, but St. Thomas Aquinas tied the set at 15-15 and later scored three straight points to move ahead 21-18. The Wildcats worked back through the late stages, getting kills from
Mina Faw (Williamsburg, Va.) before
Maddie Schamaun (Rockville, Md.) served up an ace to tie the set at 23-23. STAC reached set point at 24-23 and again at 25-24, but Amelia Gonzalez (Juana Diaz, P.R.) and
Avery Craig (Tomball, Tex.) answered with kills, and the Wildcats finished the set on a Gaylor-
Jolie Faw (Williamsburg, Va.) block and a St. Thomas Aquinas attack error for a 27-25 win.
The Wildcats built a 7-1 lead in the second set after Gonzalez put down a kill, Johnson served four straight points, Craig added a kill from Schamaun and Johnson followed with an ace. The Spartans worked back to 9-5, but the Wildcats answered with five straight points to move ahead 14-5, a stretch that included Craig's ace,
Jolie Faw's kill from
Molly Ryan (Orchard Park, N.Y.) and a block by
Jolie Faw and
Mina Faw (Williamsburg, Va.). St. Thomas Aquinas later cut the margin to 19-16 before Gaylor's kill from Schamaun stopped the run. The Wildcats stayed in front down the stretch, getting late kills from Johnson and Gonzalez before Gonzalez/Johnson combined on the block that closed the set, 25-20.
After St. Thomas Aquinas built a 6-2 lead in the third set, the Wildcats worked back with kills from Craig and
Jolie Faw before Faw's kill tied it at 9-9. An ace from
Jarielys Giraud (Orlando, Fla.) ace put the Wildcats in front 10-9, and a block by Gonzalez and another Faw kill stretched the run to a 12-9 advantage before St. Thomas Aquinas narrowed the gap to 13-12. Gonzalez's kill began a seven-point run that carried the Wildcats to 20-12, with Johnson serving three straight aces, Gonzalez adding another kill, Gaylor finishing a kill and Johnson closing the burst with her fourth ace of the set. St. Thomas Aquinas got back to 23-17, but a bad set gave the Wildcats set point and Craig served an ace to take the set, 25-17, and the match, 3-0.
IMPACT PLAYERS
- Craig finished with a team-high 10 kills and added seven digs along with two aces for a team-high 12.5 points.
- Gonzalez led the team with five blocks -- two solo -- and added seven kills for a team-high .353 clip along with five digs for 11.5 points on the day.
- Three-time ECC Rookie of the Year Audrey Johnson finished with a career-high seven aces, chipping in eight digs and four kills
- Schamaun totaled 19 assists, five digs and one ace.
- Freshman defensive specialist Mollie Berry (Evergreen Park, Ill.) totaled a team-high 11 digs.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats will take on Mercy on Sunday at 12 PM.
