Oct. 17, 2008

DAYTON, Ohio -  The University of Dayton women's soccer team dominated in a 4-0 Atlantic 10 win over visiting St. Bonaventure Friday night at Baujan Field in front of a crowd of 734. The Flyers played inspired soccer; UD sophomore Krystal Byrne, who just returned to school after battling leukemia for three years, gave a motivational speech to the Dayton players prior to the game. Byrne also served as honorary captain. "We played brilliant," said UD head coach Mike Tucker. "At times we played some of the best soccer I've ever seen our team play. Our touches were good. As coaches we said that we are going to step back a little bit and let the girls play the game and that they determine their fate."

Dayton (10-4-1, 4-1-1 A-10) scored the lone goal of the first half in the 12 th minute. Junior Mandi Back bent a nice cross into the box and senior Amanda Gallow flicked it off her head past the keeper on the near post.

Senior Deana Waintraub preserved the shutout with a tight save in the 26th minute. SBU's Courtney Bosse timed a perfect run to get past the UD defense on a through ball from Marilyn Wargo. Bosse cranked a shot to the right side and Waintraub made an incredible diving save to turn SBU away and gave the Flyers their fifth shutout this season.

"What a great save early in the first half by Deana," said Tucker. "That preserved it and set the tone that we weren't going to allow anything. It was a pretty good team effort, defensively."

After outshooting the Bonnies 7-4 in the first half, Dayton turned it up the highest gear cranking 17 shots to SBU's two. The Flyers pounded away and came up with three more goals in the second stanza.

Gibson scored her first goal of the season early in the half - just over a minute into it - on a header off a corner kick by senior Kim Sacher.

"It felt good to score. I've been struggling with shooting so I guess I just had to put one in with my head," said Gibson.

Then Gibson did what she does best - set up a teammate for a goal.  Lauren MacCormick blasted a shot past the keeper from 30 yards out off the touch pass from Gibson to give the Flyers a 3-0 lead in the 58th minute. Gibson has dished out a team-high six assists this season.

"It's been a long season of being not as productive as I want so it was a good feeling to get that started," said MaCormick. "I think we have just been struggling with finishing we have a lot of talent up top. We feel a lot more confident and feel like we should be scoring four goals each game. We reevaluated where we're at this season so I think for the first time since the beginning of the year we all came together and refocused and showed we are all ready for this game."

Freshman Kelsey Owen put on the finishing touch with a goal in the 88th minute on assists from Kelly Blumenschein and Cara Cornacchia.

Dayton hosts Duquesne this Sunday at 1 p.m. at Baujan Field in another A-10 showdown.