DAYTON - The University of Dayton men's soccer team had a return to a somewhat normal season this year, after getting back into the swing of things from the pandemic.
 
Last season took place in the spring, when the Flyers earned their eighth A-10 Championship, an impressive feat for the team coming out of the COVID-19 altered fall.  
 
Dayton faced IUPUI on Aug. 17th for their first exhibition match of the year and secured a win to start off the season on a positive note.
 
The Flyers' next game was an exhibition match against Bellarmine; with their 1-0 win, the Flyers ended the preseason unbeaten.
 
UD opened the season on a hot streak after defeating both Incarnate Word, 3-2, and Detroit, 2-0. The momentum slowed however as the Flyers lost the next three games to Western Michigan, Oakland, and Nov. 4 West Virginia and tying Kansas City before their conference opener against VCU on Sept. 25.

The Flyers suffered a tough 2-0 loss against VCU, and fell to No. 10 Kentucky at home in the non-conference. After the tough stretch however, the Flyers recovered and won their home game, 4-2, against Massachusetts, and their away game, 1-0, against George Washington.
 
The toughest portion of the A-10 slate followed however as Dayton endured close losses to Rhode Island and at No. 11 Saint Louis.
 
Going on the road again the Flyers, determined to regain their winning streak, fought for an impressive tie against Davidson in a 2-2 contest with Dayton coming from behind twice.
 
UD returned home for the final two games of the season, dropping a 2-1 decision to St. Bonaventure before finishing the regular season with a 4-3 overtime victory on Michael Adedokun's game-winner in the 95^th minute. That win solidified Dayton's berth in the A-10 Championship tournament as the No. 8 seed.

Unfortunately that meant a trip to the No. 8 team in the country on their home field, falling to top-seed Saint Louis 2-0.
 
The team finished 6-9-3 on the season and was 3-4-1 in A-10 conference games. The Flyers did make it to the quarterfinals, which was an encouraging feat after an up-and-down conference slate.
 
The Flyers had many impressive rankings both nationally and in their conference.

 Team Rankings

• Corner Kicks Per Game – The Flyers ranked top 3 in the conference.
• Saves Per Game  – Out of 202 teams, Dayton ranked 62 nationally and 7 in the conference.
• Shots per game  – The Flyers ranked 6 in the conference.

Player Rankings

• Kingsford Adjei – Ranked both nationally and in the A-10 conference as first for penalty kicks. He also ranked top 50 nationally in shots per game, making him rank fourth in the conference.
• Forster Ajago – Ranked both nationally and in the A-10 conference as first for penalty kicks.
• Marc Kouadio – Ranked in the national top 20 for total saves and second in the conference. He also ranked in the top 50 for most saves per game and fourth in the league.

Dayton had numerous individuals recognized throughout the season with awards and accolades.

Awards

• Kingsford Adjei – A-10 First Team All-Conference honors (third time), Senior CLASS Award Top 30 Candidates honoree, A-10 Preseason First Team All-Conference, and Ohio's College Advantage Student-Athlete of the Week August 30-September 6.
• Michael Adedokun – Ohio's College Advantage Student-Athlete of the Week October 25-31.
• Andy Sanchez – Ohio's College Advantage Student-Athlete of the Week September 27-October 3rd.
• Jaden Jones-Riley – Ohio's College Advantage Student-Athlete of the Week August 23-29.

 
The Flyers also said goodbye to the departing seniors Elias Harryson, Kingsford Adjei, Jake Feiner, Jake Lofgren, Josh Morgan, Nolan Hutter, Pape Gueye, Dominic Ruffolo, and Eren Elbustu. Thank you for all you have done for the program.