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DAYTON, Ohio - The University of Dayton volleyball team is set to kick off the 2014 season at Bowling Green's Hampton Inn Invitational Aug. 29-30. The Flyers will open the tournament against the host Falcons Friday at 5 p.m. On Saturday, UD will square off against the Pitt Panthers at 10 a.m. followed by a 5:30 p.m. nightcap against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. All three matches will be played at BGSU's Stroh Center.

ABOUT THE FIELD
The Hampton Inn Invitational is the season-opening tournament for all four teams participating this weekend. Bowling Green posted a 14-16 overall record in 2013 with a 10-6 mark in Mid-American Conference play. Pittsburgh tallied a 19-14 win-loss mark last year, including an 11-9 record in its first season of Atlantic Coast Conference play. Middle Tennessee finished 2013 at 17-13 for the season, recorded an 8-6 record in Conference USA action and the Blue Raiders fell in the first round of the C-USA Championship.

SERIES STUFF
•The Flyers and Falcons have previously met 27 times in the all-time series between the two programs with Dayton holding the 15-12 advantage. UD has won the last two match-ups, including most recently a 3-1 win over BGSU last season on Nov. 29.
•Pittsburgh and Dayton have squared off five times since 1977 with the Flyers only loss to the Panthers coming in 1985. The two last met on Aug. 27, 2010 with UD taking the straight-set sweep of Pitt.
•Saturday's match between Dayton and Middle Tennessee will be the first meeting between the two programs.

FLYER FACTS
• Tim Horsmon is entering his sixth season overall and first since 2007 as head coach of the Flyers in 2014. His record at Dayton is 128-43 and his overall win-loss mark sits at 304-207. UD is 4-1 in season openers with Horsmon at the helm.
• Dayton returns three of its top five kills producers from a year ago, including junior Jill Loiars who ranked second on the team in 2013 with 258 kills. Senior Isolde Hannan had the team's top returning hitting percentage (.283) and blocks total (119, 1.31/set - both ranked second on the squad last season).
• Last year, UD finished the season ranked fifth in the nation in blocks/set (3.0) and Isolde Hannan was 38th nationally with 1.31 blocks/set. Dayton led the A-10 in blocks/set and ranked second in service aces (1.40) and opponent hitting percentage (.172).
• The Flyers finished the 2013 season 16-13 overall with a 8-6 Atlantic 10 mark to finish in fifth place.
• Dayton has won the Atlantic 10 Regular Season title 10 times (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2001, 1998). The Flyers have won the A-10 Championship title eight times (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2003) and have made nine NCAA appearances in program history.

UP NEXT
Dayton and Wright State will be co-hosting the Flyer-Raider Invitational next weekend, Sept. 5-6, with a total of five matches to be played at Frericks Center. Dayton will open the weekend against No. 7 Nebraska Friday followed by a trip across town to Wright State on Saturday. In the nightcap on Saturday, the Flyers will close out the tournament against the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners at home.

TWO MORE TO 1,000
With 998 total program wins, Dayton needs two more victories to reach the 1,000-win mark and become just the 13th NCAA DI program to attain that level of success. The Flyers currently rank 13th all-time in the Division I record book with an overall program tally of 998-560 over 44 seasons (1970).

FOLLOW THE FLYERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans can follow the official UD Volleyball social media outlets by liking Facebook.com/udaytonvb and on Twitter by following this handle:
@DaytonVB. Hashtags for Flyer Volleyball include UDVB and GoFlyers.

UD PICKED THIRD IN A-10 PRESEASON POLL
Dayton has been chosen to finish in third place in the Atlantic 10 for 2014. The Flyers, winners of four of the last five A-10 titles, tallied 78 points in voting among the league's head coaches as announced by the conference office Aug. 20. Defending champion Duquesne was selected to win the title, receiving eight first-place votes.