Nov. 18, 2007

Dayton 3, Xavier 0

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The No. 16 Dayton Flyers claimed the Atlantic 10 Volleyball Championship with a 3-0 sweep of Xavier (30-24, 33-31, 30-26) Sunday afternoon at Halton Arena on the campus of University of North Carolina Charlotte. The Flyers (30-1), already regular season champions of the league and the top seed, earn the Conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. Dayton still maintains the country's best winning percentage.

Despite the sweep, all three games were close. Dayton started out strong, only allowing Xavier (23-9) to tie the match at 1-1 early on. The Flyers then extended an 11-4 lead and kept the Musketeers to no closer than three the rest of the way. Dayton's Lindsay Fletemier and Jamie-Lee Richards each had seven kills in the opening game.

Game two was a seesaw battle of heavyweights. The teams were tied 19 times in the second frame, with Dayton's largest lead tallying three and Xavier earning only a two-point margin. Down 31-30 near the end of the game, Fletemier tied the match with a kill, and following a Xavier attack error, Brittany Akerhielm notched the game-deciding kill for the three-point rally. Richards had another seven kills for Dayton in the second game.

"Xavier is a great opponent," said Flyers coach Tim Horsmon. "There is a reason they earned a bye this weekend with the season they had. They are well coached and play great volleyball. All three games today were close and we feel fortunate to be in this position."

Xavier came back after intermission and grabbed a four-point edge at 8-4 and held onto the lead to the halfway point of the game. Dayton tied things up at 16-all, after which point the teams battled to a 20-all tie. Dayton finished on a 10-6 run to close out the championship. Richards recorded another six kills to finish with the match-high 20 and earn Most Outstanding Player honors for the Championship.

"We talk about winning championships," said Horsmon. "The season is not over for us yet. We have a lot of goals we want to accomplish. I'm hearing maybe we can get an opportunity to host some NCAA tournament games and get a good seed and get some winnable matches, which would be great for our program."

Fletemier added 17 kills, with setter Erin Schroeder dishing out 54 assists, while logging the match-high 20 digs. Libero Adrienne Green added 17 digs for the Flyers.

Xavier was led by Hillary Otte's 12 kills, while four Musketeers had 10 or more digs, led by Kelly Ruth's 14. Jenn Welsh paced Xavier with 28 assists.

In addition to Richards, the All-Championship team consisted of Dayton's Schroeder, Xavier's Otte and Jenni Horvath, and Saint Louis' Sammi McCloud and Whitney Roth.