In its final contest at the College Center Gymnasium this spring, the D'Youville women's volleyball fell to crosstown rival Daemen, 3-0 (16-25, 22-25, 8-25), on Thursday night in Buffalo, N.Y.

It was the first win for the Wildcats this season, improving the guests to 1-3 overall, while the Saints shifted to 0-3 on the campaign with the loss.

Paced by 11 kills from Jenn Heritz, Daemen posted a .363 hitting percentage for the match as the team combined for 43 kills on the evening. Heritz and the rest of the Wildcat hitter were aided by Dunja Masic's 35 assists and a match-high 11 digs from Ali Greenwood, while Heritz led all players with four total blocks.

On the home side, freshman outside hitter Kelly Cleversley was once again the power behind the D'Youville attack, putting down seven kills for the Saints. Following behind Cleversley were junior outside hitter Carly Milleville with six kills and sophomore outside hitter Julia Peinkofer's five kills. Peinkofer was an efficient part of D'Youville all night, hitting .714 while also connecting on a service ace. Defensively, junior libero Desiree Walters led the Saints with nine digs and sophomore middle hitter Brianna Damstetter recorded the team's only block of the match.

The first set saw a battle for control early on with seven lead changes, but D'Youville would hold its last lead at 10-9 as Daemen went on to take 15 of the final 21 points, supported by a pair of 5-0 Wildcat runs and six kills from Maggie Burns.

In the second frame, both teams kept it within three points for most of the set, but a 3-0 surge by the Wildcats made it 22-19 before Damstetter stopped the streak with a kill. Another pair of Daemen points made it 24-20 and the Saints were not able to fight back to even, eventually dropping the set, 25-22.

After a pair of closely-contested sets to start the match, the Wildcats turned up the dial in the third, committing only one attack error in the set to post a .478 hitting clip. Despite a Peinkofer ace to begin the frame, the Saints could not handle the Daemen servers and attack, as a 6-3 Wildcat lead swelled to 17-5 following a seven-point run and a pair of 2-0 spurts. D'Youville recovered for a short time, but Daemen went on another long run (six-straight points) and took seven of the final eight points to finish off the weekday sweep.

Notables – The all-time series moves to 4-0 in favor of Daemen ... Cleversley has been the Saints' top hitter in every match this season ... Freshman setter Emma Wlostowski was second on the team with eight digs while also tallying 19 assists ... The contest marked senior defensive specialist Talia Wright's final appearance on the College Center court ... Daemen posted seven total blocks in the win, compared to D'Youville's one ... The Wildcats also won the service battle, registering eight aces, while the Saints racked up just three aces.

Up Next – The Saints wrap up the spring season next Friday, April 16, at Roberts Wesleyan.