DAYTON - The 2024 University of Dayton volleyball season kicks off this weekend, Aug. 30-31, with a highly-competitive Dayton Flyer Invitational inside the friendly confines of the Frericks Center.

UD welcomes Northern Iowa, FIU and Ohio State to the Gem City for the four-team tournament, with the Flyers taking on UNI on Friday night at 7 p.m., FIU on Saturday at 1 p.m., and culminating with the marquee matchup Saturday night against Ohio State at 7 p.m.

Flyers Picked As A-10 Preseason Favorites
Coming off a 32-3 season where the Flyers went a perfect 18-0 in the Atlantic 10, Dayton was picked No. 1 in the 2024 A-10 Preseason Poll the league office announced Tuesday ahead of the start of the season.

UD earned all 10 first-place votes and tallied 100 points total. Loyola Chicago finished second in the poll with 89 points, while VCU, Davidson and Saint Louis rounded out the rest of the top five.

Chasing Down History
Fifth-year senior Lexie Almodovar has already etched her name in the Dayton record books, becoming the 18th AVCA All-American in program history a season ago, but has her sights set on more. 

This season, the Noblesville, Ind. native looks to etch her name at the top of the all-time kills list in UDVB history. Almodovar currently sits in eighth with 1,461 kills and needs 335 to pass Flyer Hall of Famer Faye Barhorst atop the leaderboard.

Almodovar can also become the seventh Flyer ever to reach 1,000+ kills and 1,000+ digs, currently sitting just 70 digs short of the threshold.

Familiar Flyer Faces
The Flyers bring an experienced group into the 2024 campaign, returning five starters plus their libero from last year's A-10 Championship team. 

All-American Lexie Almodovar highlights the returnees, and she's joined by senior setter Alyssa Miller, redshirt senior outside hitter Brooke Smith, redshirt junior outside hitter Taylor Russell, middle blocker Alayna Yates, and junior libero Karissa Kaminski.

Meet the Newcomers
Dayton welcomes five new faces to the team for the season, including four freshmen and one graduate transfer.

Middle blocker Alia Williams (Houston, Texas / Kingwood Park / LSU) joins the Flyers after a four-year career at LSU. She's joined by outside hitter Corrie Anderson (Monument, Colo. / Palmer Ridge), outside hitter Sydney Barrett (Maineville, Ohio / Kings), middle blocker Abbie Cresse (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Blackhawk Christian), and defensive specialist Ella Joesting (Prior Lake, Minn. / Prior Lake).

You Can Count On Miller
Running this year's offense will be senior Alyssa Miller, who turned in an All-Conference season a year ago. The Overland Park, Kan. native divvied out 1,277 assists for a 10.55 assists/set average. She helped lead the Flyer attack to a .276 percentage on the year, which led the Atlantic 10 and ranked 18th nationally.

Block Party
The Flyers were the Atlantic 10's top defensive team a season ago, averaging 2.35 blocks per set, and also holding opponents to a .147 attack percentage. The team's top blocker, Amelia Moore, is now playing professionally in France, but Dayton returns plenty of prowess at the net.

Fifth-year Alayna Yates averaged 0.93 blocks per set a season ago, finishing the year with 97 total blocks. Liana Sarkissian averaged 0.68 per set, and Alyssa Miller was close behind at 0.66.

Closing in on 400
Dayton head coach Tim Horsmon, now in his 15th season as the Flyers' coach (2003-08; 2014-Present), sits just 25 wins away from 400 in his career at UD.

Horsmon, who is already the all-time winningest Dayton coach, has a 375-107 record while at the helm of the Flyers for an all-time winning percentage of .778. For his total 25-year career, Horsmon has a 551-271 record.

About The Opponents
UNI is coming off an impressive 26-7 year a season ago that saw the Panthers reach the NCAA Tournament, and returns one of its key outside hitters, Kira Fallert (3.51 K/S) from 2023.

FIU improved its win total from 2022 to 2023 by five games and made the Conference USA Tournament semifinal, and looks to continue its upward trajectory in 2024.

OSU returns the active career kills leader Emily Londot, who was named All-Big Ten Preseason Team after being a unanimous selection for the All-Big Ten First Team in 2023. The Buckeyes bring in the No. 2-ranked recruiting class with six freshmen and a transfer from Wisconsin.