Match Notes
Xavier at No. 17 Dayton – Friday, Oct. 29 – Dayton, Ohio – Frericks Center – 7 p.m. ET
Promotions: Chalk Talk with Head Coach Kelly Sheffield, 5:15 p.m. in Frericks #201-B; Pack the House Challenge with a special appearance from the UD Marching Band; Player autographs after match.
No. 17 Dayton at George Washington – Sunday, Oct. 31 – Washington, D.C. – Charles E. Smith Center – 1 p.m. ET
Live Coverage: Stats, Blog (DaytonFlyers.com)
Noting the Flyers (18-3, 9-0)
The league-leading, 17th-ranked Flyers are on a 13-match winning streak after defeating George Washington and Charlotte at home last weekend in straight sets ... Dayton leads the A-10 in four categories – hitting percentage (.241), opponent hitting percentage (.121), blocks per set (3.03), and digs per set (17.54) ... Nationally, the Flyers rank third in blocks per set, and 15th in digs per set, while Senior Lindsay Fletemier ranks second in the nation in blocks per set (1.61) ... Head Coach Kelly Sheffield recently won his 200th career match on Sept. 17 against Santa Clara at the Notre Dame Invitational ... The Flyers have been ranked in the AVCA Top-25 for 13 consecutive weeks.
About Xavier (14-7, 7-2)
The Musketeers are led by first-year Head Coach Mike Johnson and come into the weekend ranked second in the Atlantic 10 Conference with a 7-2 record ... Xavier has won six of the last seven matches, including a loss to Dayton at home on Oct. 15 ... XU leads the A-10 in all the categories that UD does not: kills per set (13.40), assists per set (12.63) and aces per set (1.57) ... Senior outside hitter Shannon Voors leads the Musketeers with 3.61 kills per set on a .221 hitting percentage ... Junior Kathryn Traut is XU’s go-to middle with a team-high 360 swings and a .308 hitting percentage ... Senior setter Claire Paszkiewicz has a conference-leading 11.31 assists per set and paces XU in total aces with 25 ... Sophomore middle Alex Smith, who has a team-best .354 hitting percentage, has not played for nine straight matches.
The Series: Dayton leads, 40-23. The last three meetings between the two local rivals have gone to five sets. On Oct. 15 of this season, all five sets were decided by two points with Dayton coming out on top, 25-27, 25-23, 25-27, 26-24, 15-13 ... Last season the Musketeers handed UD its only loss during the conference season, which forced the Flyers to eventually share the regular season title with Saint Louis ... Both teams protected home court last season ... In front of a season-high 2,072 fans at the Frericks Center on Sept. 25, 2009, the Flyers defeated the Musketeers 3-2 despite putting up an inferior hitting percentage, .158 to XU’s .245 ... Later in the season, Xavier upset UD in five sets at the Cintas Center (10/30/09) with its branded fast-paced offense which out-gained UD in kills, 65-50 ... This season the rivalry adds a new chapter as Xavier’s new Head Coach Mike Johnson will face the Flyers for the first time ... UD Head Coach Kelly Sheffield holds a 4-1 all-time record against the Musketeers.
About George Washington (17-7, 6-1)
George Washington will face the Flyers for the second time in two weeks on Sunday in Washington, D.C. ... The Cononials have won eight of the last 11 matches, including a five-match winning streak prior to dropping matches against Dayton and Xavier last weekend ... Sophomore outside hitter Lauren Whyte leads the A-10 in kills per set (4.07) and points per set (4.52) ... GW is right behind UD in conference hitting percentage, ranking second with a .224 attack rate ... Senior middle Katie Zulandt leads the team and ranks fourth in the A-10 in hitting percentage (.351), while freshman right side MacKenzie Kvitle is fifth in the conference with a .341 percentage ... GW has the fourth-highest RPI in the conference, ranked 87th this week ... Head Coach Jojit Coronel, a California product, is in his 11th season with the Colonials and won the A-10 Tournament in 2000 ... Seven of the 16 GW players are from California.
The Series: Dayton leads, 21-9. Last weekend Dayton used one of the most prolific three-set offensive matches of the season to stop George Washington’s winning streak at five ... The Flyers set a season-high .427 hitting percentage and out-gained the Colonials in kills, 53-to-30 ... Three Flyers notched 11 kills on the night, led by senior middle blocker Lindsay Fletemier’s .611 hitting percentage and five blocks.
A-10’s Leaders Converge On The Frericks Center
Dayton (9-0) and Xavier (7-2) not only stand alone in first and second in the Atlantic 10 Conference standings, each team leads the conference in every statistical category, respectively ... Dayton leads the league in hitting percentage (.241), opponent hitting percentage (.121), blocks per set (3.03), and digs per set (17.54) ... Xavier leads the conference in the remaining categories, including assists per set (12.63), kills per set (13.40), and service aces per set (1.57).
Defense Wins Championships
Dayton is the only team in the country to rank in the top 20 in both blocks and digs ... Among 327 NCAA Division I volleyball programs, the Flyers rank third in blocks per set (3.03) and 15th in digs per set (17.54) ... UD has two players who average 1.00 or more blocks per set and nearly four players averaging 3.00 digs per set (Jessica Yanz with 2.96 d/s) ... Senior middles Lindsay Fletemier (1.61 b/s) and Becky Novacek (1.23 b/s) rank first and second in the A-10 in blocks per set, respectively ... Sophomore libero Paige Vargas (4.11 d/s) and senior outside hitter Amanda Cowdrey (3.76 d/s) are the only teammates in the A-10 to rank in the top eight in digs per set ... UD leads the conference in opponent hitting percentage (.121) and has held foes to a hitting percentage under .100 in nine matches.
Inside The Winning Streak
Dayton is currently on a 13-match winning streak – the sixth-longest in the nation ... During the streak, the Flyers have held opponents to a .087 hitting percentage while recording a .266 hitting percentage of its own ... UD’s recent improvement in serving is evident with 65 service aces and just 61 service errors, averaging 1.44 aces per set ... Dayton is averaging 3.2 blocks per set, compared to opponents’ 1.1 blocks per set ... Four players are hitting over .300 and four players have 100 or more kills in 13 matches ... Lindsay Fletemier is UD’s out-right leader in numbers with 158.5 points, 1.54 blocks per set, .463 hitting percentage with 126 kills and just 13 attacking errors (one per match) ... Amanda Cowdrey (4.11) and Paige Vargas (4.19) are each averaging more than four digs per set ... 10 matches have been decided in three sets (including all four at home).
Rising In The Polls
Dayton moved up one spot to No. 17 in the AVCA Top-25 on Monday ... With 526 points, the Flyers received the most points during its current 13 consecutive weeks in the poll, dating back to last season ... The highest Dayton volleyball has been ranked in the AVCA Top-25 is No. 12 during the week of Oct. 15, 2007 ... The NCAA RPI debuted Dayton at No. 12 and still has UD at No. 12 this week ... The Flyers have played four teams in the RPI top 10, including a win over sixth-ranked Northern Iowa ... Dayton has its highest ranking of the season in other national polls, RichKern.com places the Flyers at No. 15 and Volleyball Magazine puts UD at No. 16.
Fletemier Moving Up
More than mid-way through her fourth season in the Red and Blue, two-time All-American Lindsay Fletemier is approaching a handful of career records at Dayton ... Fletemier is currently second on the career block-assists list with 443 ... Fletemier entered the year fourth on the all-time block-assist list with 336 and has passed Sheila Kreim (1994-97) and Katie Ferriell (1998-01) this season ... Fletemier holds the second-best career hitting percentage with an improved .369 rate through 21 matches this season ... Fletemier also entered the season second in hitting percentage behind Faye Barhorst (2003-06) ... The Garden City, Mich., also broke into UD’s career kills list this season, currently in fourth with 1,407 ... Last weekend number nine passed Sierra Ashley (1997-00) for fourth place; the number to catch is Cathy Wojciechowski’s (1990-93) all-time record of 1,645 kills.
Fletemier ranks second in NCAA Division I in blocks per set (1.61) ... She has had at least one block in 69 consecutive matches played and holds a comfortable A-10 lead in blocks with 113.0 total ... Last season Fletemier finished the season ranked 35th in the nation in blocks per set (1.25) and 11th in hitting percentage (.389), gaining Third Team AVCA All-America honors ... Teammate and fellow senior Becky Novacek currently leads the A-10 in blocks per set during conference play with 1.54 – 43.0 total.
Academic Success
The newest NCAA Graduate Success Rate (GSR) numbers were released on Tuesday and Dayton volleyball reported a perfect score of 100 percent of all student-athletes who started playing volleyball for UD in 2003 having graduated ... Flyer volleyball was also recognized for the third straight season with the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award ... Finishing the season No. 25 in the AVCA poll, UD is one of just three nationally-ranked teams to earn the award this season (Oregon, Stanford) ... The Flyers reported a 3.37 team GPA in the 2009-10 school year ... UD volleyball also scored a perfect single-year APR score (1000) in 2008-09, which was released in the Spring by the NCAA.
Accurate Acers
Freshman Allyson Morey leads the Atlantic 10 in aces per set (0.35) during conference play (third overall) going into the weekend ... Morey, who leads the team in sets played coming off the bench, has 25 aces and just eight service errors ... Senior Amanda Cowdrey averages 0.28 aces per set with 21 aces and 15 service errors ... As a team the Flyers hold the third-best service aces-to-errors ratio in the conference with total of 85 aces and 103 errors ... Duquesne (88:77) has the only positive ratio in the A-10, followed by George Washington (123:145) in second ... Sophomore Rachel Krabacher ranks fourth in the A-10 in aces per set (0.37) during conference play.
2010 NCAA Volleyball Regional Tickets Available
Dayton will be one of four hosts during the 2010 NCAA Tournament Regionals on Dec. 10-11 at the University of Dayton Arena ... Tickets are now available for purchase by visiting the UD Arena Ticket Office or by phone at 937-229-4433 ... Other Regional sites include Austin (Texas), Seattle (Washington), and University Park (Penn State) ... The National Semifinals and Final will be held at Kansas City’s Sprint Center ... The Flyers hosted Charlotte in UD Arena on Oct. 23 as a precursor to the Regional – the NCAA requires the host school to play at least one home match at the Regional site during the regular season.
Dayton Atlantic 10 Players of the Week
Oct. 26 – Offensive Player of the Week
Led UD to a combined .336 hitting percentage with 75 assists in a pair of 3-0 victories over George Washington and Charlotte ... Outgained its opponents in kills 100-60 ... Tied a three-set season-high of 40 assists against George Washington, while propelling UD to a team season-best .427 hitting percentage ... Added four kills (.667 attack percentage) and eight digs versus the Colonials ... Closed out the weekend with her 11th double-double of the season with 35 assists and 11 digs in three sets against Charlotte, while registering four blocks.
Sept. 28 – Offensive Player of the Week
Second consecutive Offensive POW honor ... 2.75 kills per set on a .457 hitting percentage on the weekend against Saint Louis and Duquesne ... Six blocks, 12 kills, no attacking errors, and a .545 hitting percentage in a five-set win at SLU ... 10 kills, .375 hitting percentage, six blocks, 16 points in a three-set win at Duquesne.
Sept. 21 – Offensive Player of the Week
MVP of the Notre Dame Invitational with 37 kills and 22 blocks in the Flyers’ three wins over Santa Clara, Delaware and Notre Dame ... Only recorded five attacking errors in 68 swings for a .471 hitting percentage ... In five-sets with Santa Clara, recorded her first double-double of the season with 17 kills and 11 blocks ... 13 kills, no attacking errors and six blocks to help sweep Delaware ... Seven kills and five blocks to sweep host Notre Dame.
Sept. 7 – Defensive Player of the Week
Diet Coke Classic (Minnesota) All-Tournament Team selection after totaling 20 blocks and 28 kills in three matches ... Registered nine blocks to hold No. 22 Northern Iowa to a .166 hitting percentage in a five-set victory ... Helped hold Baylor to a .096 hitting percentage in the Flyers’ four-set win with six blocks and nine kills ... Tallied 11 kills and five blocks against No. 8 Minnesota.
Sept. 28 – Defensive Player of the Week
Earned her first Atlantic 10 weekly award after averaging 6.00 digs per set and totaling 48 in two matches ... Cowdrey tied her career-high of 27 digs in a five-set win over Saint Louis on Sept. 24 ... Added 12 kills and three blocks against the Billikens, helping the Flyers defeat SLU for the first time on the road since 2007 ... Cowdrey went on to record a three-set team season-high of 21 digs in a 3-0 sweep of Duquesne ... Behind Cowdrey’s defensive efforts, Dayton limited Saint Louis and Duquesne to mere .166 and .055 hitting percentages, respectively.
Sheffield Wins 200th Career Match
Head Coach Kelly Sheffield won his 200th career match at the Notre Dame Invitational against Santa Clara on Sept. 17 ... Sheffield began the season with 193 wins and now holds a 206-99 record in his 10th season as a head coach ... In his third year at UD, Sheffield became the quickest head coach in program history to reach 50 wins in the modern scheduling format, going 51-17 in his first two seasons ... Sheffield spent seven years building the program at Albany, compiling 142 wins and three NCAA Tournament appearances ... Sheffield and wife Cathy recently gave birth to their first child, Alexa Grace, on Sept. 28, 2010.
Conference Season Success
In the past seven years, Dayton holds a 75-11 Atlantic 10 record without losing more than two conference matches in a season ... In that stretch UD has won five regular season crowns, five tournament titles, and made six trips to the NCAA Tournament ... The Flyers only remaining non-conference opponent is Ohio in the final regular season match of the season on Nov. 26 – after the A-10 Tournament ... The Flyers hold a 22-6 mark in non-conference matches since last season.
Top 25 Tour
Dayton has faced four top 25 opponents – including three in the top 10 – during its non-conference slate ... The Ameritas Players Challenge featured three teams ranked in the AVCA Top-25: No. 3 Illinois, No. 7 Nebraska and No. 20 Dayton ... The Diet Coke Classic in Minneapolis, Minn., also featured three ranked teams: No. 8 Minnesota, No. 20 Dayton, and No. 22 Northern Iowa ... The Flyers hold a 1-3 record against ranked opponents this season, defeating Northern Iowa on Sept. 3.
Novacek a Finalist for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award
Senior Becky Novacek was selected as one of thirty NCAA women’s volleyball student-athletes to be a candidate for the first-ever Lowe’s Senior CLASS (Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School)Award for volleyball ... To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition ... Novacek is a 2009 First Team Atlantic 10 All-Conference selection ... The accounting major has earned Dayton’s Presidential Scholarship and has been listed on the Atlantic 10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll while helping UD to five A-10 regular season and tournament titles, three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and two 30-win seasons.
In Memoriam: Kacie Hausfeld
A number 14 patch is adorned on the Flyers’ jerseys this season in memoriam of late teammate Kacie Hausfeld who tragically passed away last spring in a plane crash with her father, Tom ... Hausfeld, known her leadership and influential personality, would have been a senior ... For three seasons she excelled in the program as a setter, starting in the last two with 7.00 assists per set and 51 aces ... Kacie is survived by her mother Lori and sister Ali.
Returning Champs – Predicted Champs
With five starters returning from last season’s Atlantic 10 Championship team UD has been picked to win the A-10 title again in 2010 ... The Flyers were the regular season co-champs with Saint Louis, and the tournament champs after edging SLU in five sets at the Frericks Center ... The Flyers return two all-conference selections Lindsay Fletemier and Becky Novacek, A-10 Tournament MVP Amanda Cowdrey, and All-Rookie Team selection Rachel Krabacher ... Additionally, the Flyers add highly-touted recruit and Nebraska transfer Jessica Yanz to the setter position.
