AMHERST, N.Y. -- The Daemen University women's volleyball team swept Queens 3-0 (25-14, 27-25, 25-15) in the regular season finale on Sunday to cap off a win on Senior Day. The Wildcats recorded 37 kills while hitting .210 and 11 service aces while holding Queens to a .010 hitting percentage. Daemen, who clinched a spot in the East Coast Conference Tournament with their win over Molloy yesterday, finishes the regular season with a 16-10 record and 8-4 record in ECC action and will head down to Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. next weekend to play in the tournament, hosted by ECC regular season champions Mercy.
The Wildcats opened the first set by winning seven of the first eight rallies, getting a
Maddie Schamaun (Rockville, Md.) service ace, a kill from
Mina Faw (Williamsburg, Va.) and an ace by
Audrey Johnson (Mequon, Wisc.) before
Mina Faw's second kill made it 7-1. The Wildcats stayed in front behind kills from
Jolie Faw (Williamsburg, Va.), Amelia Gonzalez (Juana Diaz, P.R.) and
Payton Gaylor (Bowmanville, Ont.) and an
Avery Craig (Tomball, Tex.) ace to reach 13-8. The Wildcats pushed the lead to 21-11 off kills by
Jolie Faw,
Mina Faw as well as a Craig-Gonzalez block and an ace from
Olivia Urbon (Chicago, Ill.), then closed the set on Johnson's kill to take a 25-14 win.
After the teams traded points to 5-5 in the second set, the Wildcats scored four straight behind a pair of Knights attack errors and a Gonzalez kill to move ahead 9-5. The Wildcats stretched the margin to 14-7, with
Mina Faw factoring into blocks on two points. The lead reached 22-15 after Gonzalez served up another ace and a
Jolie Faw-
Dayden Dyess (Wylie, Tex.) block, but the Knights worked back from 24-19 to tie the set at 24-24. Craig answered with a kill for 25-24, added another for 26-25 after Queens tied it again, and finished the set from Urbon as the Wildcats won 27-25.
Daemen scored four straight early to move ahead 5-1. The Wildcats pushed the lead to 11-3 with a stretch that included kills from Craig and Gonzalez and a Gonzalez/Schamaun block, but Queens answered with five consecutive points to get within 11-8. The Wildcats then used a four-point run from 14-10 to 18-10 that included a Schamaun ace and a block by
Jolie Faw and
Mina Faw.
Jolie Faw added two kills as the Wildcats stayed in front,
Mina Faw served an ace for 22-13, and Johnson closed the 25-15 set with a kill.
IMPACT PLAYERS
- Mina Faw totaled eight kills on 19 attacks while adding five digs, two solo blocks, two block assists and an ace to tally 12 points.
- Craig finished with eight kills, six digs and one ace.
- Jolie Faw had seven kills with just one error on 12 attacks to hit .500 on the day, adding three block assists.
- Gonzalez finished with six kills on 11 attacks with no errors to hit a team-high .545, chipping in two solo blocks, one block assist, two aces and two digs on her Senior Day.
- Schamaun paced the Cats with 18 assists, two aces, eight digs and one block assist on her Senior Day.
- Urbon totaled 11 digs, six assists and a team-high three aces.
- Johnson led the Cats with 13 digs, adding four kills and two aces on the day.
