PITTSBURGH - In its Atlantic 10 opener, the University of Dayton volleyball team defeated defending A-10 champions Duquesne, 3-1 (25-14, 25-20, 21-25, 25-22), Friday night at the Dukes' Palumbo Center. Two Flyers posted double-doubles and several recorded new career highs including junior Jenna Jendryk who tallied a career-high 20 kills to lead the team.

Also for the Flyers, junior Jill Loiars posted a match-best .516 hitting percentage, committing no errors in 31 attempts and recording 16 kills. Junior Alain Turner posted 13 kills to go with 14 digs and three service aces while freshman Jane Emmenecker set a career-high 50 assists to go with a career-high 16 digs, a career-high six blocks and three service aces as well. Junior Janna Krafka passed a match-high 20 digs and freshman Amber Erhahon tallied a career-high nine total blocks.

UD out-hit DUQ, .309 to .192, while also recording 13 total blocks to the Dukes' five. The Flyers smacked down 63 kills to the Dukes' 50, and served up eight aces.

Dayton (11-4, 1-0 A-10) was to the slim 5-3 advantage over Duquesne (6-7, 0-1 A-10) with a kill from Erhahon in the early going of the first set and the lead was eight, 14-6, following a 6-0 run by the Flyers. UD led by as many as nine throughout the match but was able to stretch it to 10 at set point, 24-14, on a kill from Jendryk. Turner tallied the final point of the set with a kill as the Flyers won, 25-14.

Three consecutive kills from Jendryk out Dayton up, 6-3, but Duquesne took advantage of three Flyer attack errors to even the second set at six-all. An assisted block by senior Isolde Hannan and Emmenecker capped off a 5-0 Flyer run to put Dayton up, 14-8, and Duquesne signaled for timeout. The Dukes rallied to cut the lead to two, 17-15, and the Flyer advantage was only one, 19-18, with Dayton called for a break. Duquesne evened the set out of the timeout but Dayton regained control by scoring five-straight points. The Dukes held set point once but the Flyers claimed the 25-20 second-set win to go up 2-0 in the match.

Duquesne got ahead of Dayton, 4-2, to open the third set and stretched it to three, 7-4, following a 3-0 spurt. The frame remained closed and the two squads were tied at 12 after an Erhahon kill but the Duke lead was five, 20-15, after Duquesne scored three consecutive points. The Dukes reached set point at 24-19 but Jendryk kept the Flyers alive with a kill. In the end, Duquesne took the third set, 25-21.

It was a 5-2 lead for the Flyers in the fourth set after an Erhahon-Turner assisted block and the advantage was three again, 10-7, following a kill from Hannan. Dayton was up four, 18-14, but Duquesne rallied to even the set at 19-19 and the Flyers called for timeout. Out of the break, Hannan earned sideout for the Flyers with a solo block and Jendryk followed with a kill. Dayton reached match point at 24-20 and the Flyers won the set on a Jendryk kill, 25-22, to win the match, 3-1.

The Dukes were led by Arielle Love with 18 kills and four blocks while Patti Abshire was the team's leading passer with 18 digs.

The Flyers return to action tomorrow evening as the team is set to square off against La Salle. First serve is set for 5:30 p.m. at the Explorers' Tom Gola Arena.