AMHERST, N.Y. (Oct. 4, 2019) – Despite a team-high eight kills from sophomore Selma Vulic (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle), the Mercy College volleyball team dropped a 3-0 (24-26, 9-25, 19-25) decision to ECC foe Daemen College on Friday night at Lumsden Gymnasium.
The Mavericks (6-10, 0-2 ECC) see their two-match winning streak come to an end, while the Wildcats (10-5, 1-1 ECC) pick up their first ECC win.
Vulic added six digs and sophomore Loreto Nunez Casal (Pontevedra, Spain/Sagrado Corazon De Jesus) had six kills. Junior Natalia Garcia (Vega Baja, P.R./Turabo University) had a match-high 23 assists and junior Adriana Lopez-Soto (Gurabo, P.R./Notre Dame HS) had a match-high-tying 11 digs.
Daemen was led by Meghan Ballou who had a match-high 11 kills.
The opening set saw the Mavericks take a 13-10 lead after back-to-back attack errors by the Wildcats. Mercy later held a 19-16 lead in the set, but the hosts answered back on a 4-1 run to tie the set up at 20-20, leading to a Maverick timeout. Following the timeout, Mercy took a 22-21 lead following a freshman Stéphanie Lankhorst (Apeldoorn, Netherlands/Koninklijke Scholengemeenschap Apeldoorn) block. After a Daemen timeout, the hosts responded by taking a 24-23 lead, forcing a Mercy timeout. Nunez Casal answered with a kill to tie the set up at 24-24, but the Wildcats scored two straight points to take the first set, 26-24.
Mercy scored the first point of the second set, but Daemen went on a 16-5 run to take a 16-6 lead, which led to a Maverick timeout. The Wildcats closed the set out on a 9-3 run to earn a 25-9 set two win.
The Mavericks took a 4-1 lead in set three. However, Daemen put together a 16-8 run to build a 17-12 lead. A Nunez Casal kill made it 17-13 before the hosts went on a 5-1 run to increase the lead to 22-14. Mercy cut the deficit to five, 24-19, but could not get closer as the Wildcats took the set and match.
Mercy hit .067 with 26 kills and 36 digs and Daemen hit .296 with 43 kills and 40 digs.
Head Coach Georgia Efthalitsides and the Mavericks resume action tomorrow when they play at Roberts Wesleyan at 12 p.m.
