DAYTON, Ohio - With its 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-17, 25-20) win over second-seeded George Washington Sunday afternoon, the top-ranked University of Dayton volleyball team secured its league-record ninth Atlantic 10 Conference Championship title. With the tournament win, the Flyers earn the conference's only automatic berth in the 2014 NCAA Tournament. Junior Alaina Turner was named the Championship's Most Outstanding Player.
Turner led the Flyers in the title match with 13 kills and a career-high 24 digs while senior Isolde Hannan also had 13 kills and tallied five blocks on the afternoon. Also with double-digit kills were junior Jill Loiars (11) and freshman Amber Erhahon (11) who also recorded five blocks on the day.
Freshman Jane Emmenecker narrowly missed the double-double with 52 assists and nine digs to go with a career-high five kills. Senior Rachel Jones and junior Janna Krafka each passed 12 digs and freshman Jessica Sloan got under 10 digs for the Flyers.
Emmenecker and Erhahon joined Turner on the All-Championship Team.
Dayton (28-5) came out swinging in the first set, jumping out to a 4-0 lead over George Washington (22-8). The lead was pushed to five, 7-2, after a strong swing from Turner and the Colonials signaled for timeout. A Colonial kill pulled GW to within one, 11-10, and the set was tied at 12-all when Erhahon laid down a kill to give UD back the lead. George Washington tied the set again at 19-19 and took its first lead of the frame on the following play. Dayton called for a break and after the timeout the Flyers scored four-straight points to turn the tables. A kill from Erhahon set the score at 24-21 in favor of UD and the Flyers took the set, 25-21, in a Colonial ball-handling error.
An early 3-0 spurt from George Washington evened the score at four points apiece but Dayton picked up back-to-back scores to take a 6-4 advantage. The teams were square at nine but UD used a 3-0 run to take a 12-9 lead. The Colonials led by as many as five, 20-15, down the stretch but the Flyers were able to cut the advantage back to two, 20-18. An Erhahon-Emmenecker assisted block squared the two squads at 21-all but GW reached set point at 24-22. The Colonials evened the match with their 25-23 win in the second set.
A two-point lead was all either team could muster early on in the third set and the frame was tied at 9-9 after a kill from Turner. Back-to-back kills from junior Jenna Jendryk and one from Erhahon capped a 4-0 Flyer run to give UD the 12-9 advantage. The lead blossomed to seven, 18-11, after consecutive Colonial attacking errors but GW cut it to three, 20-17, with a 5-0 spurt. DU would score the last five points of the set, including three kills from Hannan, to take the frame, 25-17, and the 2-1 match lead.
Loiars scored the first three points for Dayton in the fourth set as the Flyers never trailed the Colonials and the two were never tied in the final frame. GW's Jordan Timmer put down a kill to pull the Colonials to within four at 15-11 but UD scored three straight to put the set out of reach, 18-11. Turner set up match point with a kill at 24-17 and George Washington rallied to score three more points. Hannan recorded the match-winning kill as the Flyers won, 25-20, to take the match, 3-1.
The Colonials were led by Chidima Osuchukwu with a match-high 16 kills and Loren Williams with 13 kills. Timmer recorded GW's only double-double with 46 assists and 13 digs.
The Flyers have one more regular-season match – Friday, Nov. 28 against No. 24 Ohio at 7 p.m. Dayton will find out its NCAA Tournament First Round opponent on Sunday, Nov. 30. The selection show will be shown on ESPNU beginning at 8:30 p.m.
