DAYTON - The University of Dayton men's soccer team travels to Massachusetts this Saturday, Oct. 20 for a 1 p.m. contest against the Minutemen.

SCOUTING THE FLYERS
The Flyers head into the weekend with a 5-5-4 record overall and a 1-3-1 Atlantic 10 mark. Dayton is 1-3-1 on the road this season and looking to fight its way into postseason opportunities.

Head coach Dennis Currier is in his 14th season at the helm of the Flyers, totaling 135 victories, the most in UD history. He leads a young squad this season with 15 newcomers and just two seniors.

The Flyers are averaging 1.07 goals per game and giving up 0.93 to opponents. Dayton is outshooting opposing teams 14.6 to 11.4 and shots at a 38.5 percent shots on goal clip.

Leading the Flyers is sophomore Jonas Fjeldberg, who has three goals and one assist, and junior Daniel Dos Santos, who has a goal and three assists. Goalkeeper Federico Barrios has six shutouts and 48 saves in 14 starts.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
MASSACHUSETTS
Massachusetts sits in the final A-10 tournament spot with a 2-4 record in conference play and a 6-7-2 record overall. The Minutemen are 4-3-1 at home this season and currently on a one-game losing streak. Veteran head coach Fran O'Leary is in his fourth season at UMass and 28th season as a head coach.

The Minutemen are scoring 1.40 goals each outing and holding opponents to 1.20 per game. UMass is narrowly outshooting opposing squads, but is shooting at a lower percentage.

Leading UMass is DeAndrae Brown, who has a team-high eight goals, and Jack Fulton, who has four goals and three assists. Yosuke Hanya has four assists to lead the Minutemen. Goalkeepers Trey Miller and Marvyn Dorchin have split time between the posts, combining for 47 saves and five shutouts.

THE SERIES
Dayton and UMass have squared off 22 times previously with the Flyers having a narrow margin at 11 victories compared to the Minutemen's nine wins.

LAST OUTING
Dayton earned its first A-10 victory of the season with a 2-0 win over La Salle at home Wednesday. Taneski and Dos Santos scored first half goals as the Flyers powered to a win with postseason hopes on the line.

UMass suffered a 2-0 defeat to conference leaders Davidson on Wednesday at home. The Minutemen gave up both goals in the final 30 minutes of play in their fourth A-10 loss of the season. Last season, the Flyers fell at home 3-2 despite Taneski's two goals to give UD the early lead.

TANESKI NAMED PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE
Junior Rok Taneski was named to the A-10 preseason all-conference team after winning A-10 Midfielder of the Year accolades last season. The midfielder finished the year in the top three in the conference in goals (10), assists (7), and points (27).

PRESEASON
The Flyers worked through a number of different lineups in the preseason, giving multiple newcomers opportunities for playing time. Dayton tied Bowling Green 0-0 in the first exhibition game. The Flyers then hosted Ohio State at Baujan Field, a match that ended 0-0.

DAYTON PICKED TO FINISH 5TH
The Atlantic 10 Conference released its preseason poll and tabbed the Flyers to finish fifth in the league this season. With 117 points and one first-place vote, Dayton trailed preseason favorites Fordham (158), VCU (149), Massachusetts (144), and Rhode Island (124).

DAYTON WINS WOLSTEIN CLASSIC
The Flyers opened the season with a Wolstein Classic Championship, hosted at Ohio State University. Dayton drew with Hofstra 2-2 before defeating Furman 1-0 to win the title.  All-Tournament team honors went to Aidan Bean, Isaac Mensah, Trey Marchino, and Elias Harryson.

FLYERS WIN DAYTON TOURNAMENT
Dayton won their own tournament and the second won in a row after clinching the 2018 Dayton Tournament title on Sept. 3 with a 0-0 draw against Marshall. Jonas Fjeldberg earned MVP and all-tournament team honors while Elias Harryson, Federico Barrios, and Agustin Volker were all-tournament as well.

FLYER SUCCESS
The Dayton men's program has an overall record of 492-419-90 and four NCAA Tournament appearances in its history. The Flyers are also 130-89-27 in the Atlantic 10 Conference and have six conference titles between the regular season and league tournament.

INTERNATIONAL FLAIR
The Dayton program has been known to recruit well outside of the U.S. and this year's team is no different. The Flyers have student-athletes from Ghana, Finland, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, Slovenia, Sweden, Chile, Germany, and Colombia totaling 12 international players. This is coming off the 2017 season in which the Flyers had 11 international players.

CURRIER'S IMPACT
The head coach of the Flyers has had success at every place he has coached. Dennis Currier is in his 14th year at Dayton and holds a career record of 323-138-55 in 25 seasons and a 135-89-43 record with the Flyers. His career winning percentage of .690 ranks eighth in the nation amongst active coaches, ahead of programs like Notre Dame, Louisville, UCLA, Xavier, and Virginia.

UP NEXT
The Flyers return home to host VCU next Saturday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. for Senior Day.