The defending Atlantic 10 Conference champion University of Dayton volleyball team got off to another strong start in its attempt at a fourth straight conference crown at the Frericks Center.
Dayton (10-4, 2-0) defeated conference newcomer Butler University on Friday, Sept. 21 before sweeping Saint Louis University on Saturday, Sept. 22.
“I thought we served the ball really well and Shayne Brown and Megan Campbell, both of them were really good on the slide [Saturday],” UD head coach Kelly Sheffield said.
Dayton on Saturday was led by close-to-unstoppable attacks from Campbell and Brown. Campbell had 11 kills to just one attack error, seven of which came in the first set, while Brown finished with seven kills and a .538 hitting percentage.
“She’s like a freight train,” Sheffield said referring to Campbell. “She gets full steam ahead and [senior setter Samantha Selsky] puts her in a good position … The connection had been struggling … but they put a lot of work in to fix it and it was seamless for a good portion of the night.”
Senior outside hitter Rachel Krabacher had 12 kills and freshman libero Janna Krafka had nine digs.
Dayton as a team had just one attack error in the first and third sets, and finished with a .418 attack percentage.
“Sam was putting all the hitters in good situations and was playing the ball well,” Campbell said. “I thought everyone was hitting on all cylinders and hitting the ball well. It was just a good job by Sam.”
While the stats did not necessarily show it, Sheffield said the team was making a lot of adjustments early in the match to slow down SLU’s middle and right side players. He said he was happy the team was serving well to help slow them down and not let SLU get the ball where they wanted to on the court.
Entering the intermission of its conference opener against Butler on Friday, the team wasn’t happy.
According to Sheffield, the team wasn’t worried about being tied with the Bulldogs though, as he said it was actually just the opposite.
“We were pissed,” Sheffield said. “All of our mistakes were mental, not physical.”
Dayton won the match 3-1 behind a stellar performance by Selsky. With 53 assists, Selsky out-assisted Butler on her own, who finished with 44. She also accomplished the feat against SLU on Saturday with 37 assists to SLU’s 29.
“There’s a good [Selksy] and an evil one,” Sheffield said. “The evil one is who we had in the first two games. The good Sammy is the one we had in games 3 and 4.”
The Flyers again had a strong game from Campbell, who finished with 16 kills on a .682 hitting mark. Campbell leads all individuals in the A-10 with a .406 hitting percentage this season.
Dayton’s strong statistical weekend helped the team maintain its conference leads in hitting percentage, assists per set and kills per set this season.
Dayton next faces La Salle University at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 28 in Philadelphia, Penn. before traveling to Temple University at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29.
