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Daemen hopes to punch ticket to NCAA Tournament with ECC Tournament win

Wildcats host the Tournament on Friday & Saturday
Posted at 10:58 PM, Nov 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-08 22:58:18-05

Since 2015, the Daemen women's volleyball team has been postseason eligible at the Division-II level.

They've been to the Conference tournament one other time before this season back in 2016 and were the top seed then just like they are now. But despite being the Tournameet host and a number one seed, the Wildcats know that a top seed is just a number.

"We told our team everybody is at 0-0 so whatever happened during conference, it doesn't matter," said head coach Stephanie Albano. "It's a clean slate so that's how we're approaching it and we're gonna take it point by point."

If the Wildcats want to advance to the finals and win the tournament, they'll need to depend on their balanced attack.

They have six players averaging better than two kills a set and they have a trio of defenders who rank third in the Conference in digs per set. They say being able to rely on so many girls at every position is a huge advantage.

"When we're scouting teams we're like oh this person is the person we need to stop so we commit blocks or do stuff like that," said senior Courtney Bernard. "But with us, it's really hard to do because you have three people who you need to stop and when teams scout us, they really don't know who to block or who to go after because everyone's an attacking threat."

Daemen will meet Bridgeport in Friday's semifinal. The Wildcats have won the prior two meetings against the Purple Knights Friday's match starts at 6 p.m.

 

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