Nov. 19, 2004

PITTSBURGH -  The top-seeded University of Dayton volleyball team advanced to the Atlantic 10 Championship for the second straight year with a 3-0 (30-18, 30-19, 30-28) win over #4-seed Duquesne at the A.J. Palumbo Center on Friday night.

The Flyers will take on #2-seed Xavier Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Palumbo Center. UD will be making its third ever appearance in the A-10 Championship Match and will be looking for its second consecutive title.

UD Head Coach Tim Horsmon improved his postseason tournament record to a perfect 11-0 over the past six seasons and will look to lead his sixth straight squad to the NCAA Tournament to begin his head coaching career.

Dayton (22-7) out hit Duquesne (15-16) .294 to .064 on the night and were led by 2004 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Christy Utnage (Indianapolis, IN) who finished with 17 kills and 10 digs.

Sophomore All-Conference mate Faye Barhorst (Fort Loramie, OH) had 12 kills and five blocks while All-Rookie team member Robynne Green (Palatine, IL) hit .526 with 10 kills and two blocks for the Flyers.

Junior setter Nicole Schott (Roscoe, IL) dished out 43 assists for UD, who out hit the Dukes in all three games of the match.

Defensively, Dayton was led by senior Shanna Pressler (Archbold, OH) with 14 digs and five blocks.

Overall, four Flyers reached double-figures in digs including 23 kills from freshman libero Adrienne Green (Palatine, IL). Classmate Courtney Pettke (Milwaukee, WI) added 18 digs to go along with the efforts of Utnage and Pressler.

In game one, fell behind 1-3 but used a pair of four and five-point run to build a 10-4 lead and never looked back. Utnage, Barhorst and Robynne Green paced the UD offense with five, four and four kills respectively. Schott dished out 16 assists and led the Flyers to a .386 to .075 advantage in hitting percentage.

Dayton took control of the second game early on as well and forced a Duquesne timeout when a block by Robynne Green and Pressler gave the Flyers a 14-6 advantage. Utnage and Green led the UD offense once again with five kills a piece as the Flyers out hit the Dukes .400 to .105.

UD jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the third game before homestanding Duquesne rallied to knot the score at 11-all. The teams would battle back and forth with 10 tied scores and five lead changes until a kill by Robynne Green would put Dayton ahead for good at 23-22. An attack from Barhorst gave the Flyers match-point at 29-24, but the Dukes showed their resilience as they took the match to 29-28 before Schott ended the match with a kill on the right side.