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The 2009-10 season has started great both home and away for the women's basketball team. Last weekend at UD Arena, they just kept the good mojo going.

The nationally-ranked Flyers dismantled Wisconsin-Milwaukee Friday and followed up with a win over Wright State Sunday. Two dominant performances were befitting of the dominant start this team has had to the year, now at 8-1.

It all started with the win Friday over a hugely overmatched UW-Milwaukee squad. Dayton came out guns blazing and did not slow down until the game was well in hand, securing an 86-52 win.

Senior Kendel Ross scored 11 of the teams first 13 points, including three 3-pointers in the opening minutes. As the rest of the team helped Ross with the scoring load, UD's lead ballooned quickly, opening up a 30-13 advantage in the first 10 minutes.

Dayton's defense was also suffocating, forcing 17 turnovers and scoring 22 points off those turnovers in the first half.

"I was really pleased with our intensity defensively," Head Coach Jim Jabir said. "I thought we got out and ran the defense gave us that. They couldn't run a lot of offense because of our defense."

Dayton continued to pour it on from a variety of players and positions for the rest of the first half scoring on tons of lay-ups on fast breaks, as well as hitting a couple more three's. Any thoughts the Panthers had of coming back were put to rest by the Flyers by the end of the first half, as the scoreboard showed 56-19 when the buzzer sounded. Ross led the way for the Flyers with 13 points in the half.

The second half went much the same way, although coach Jim Jabir and the Flyers slowed down in the scoring department a bit. Midway through the first half the lead had actually gone down by a couple points, 67-33.

The lead did not change noticeably for the remainder of the game as UD coasted to the victory. Despite playing only a few minutes in the second half, Ross finished the day leading Dayton in scoring with 18 points.

With such a large lead in the second half, Flyer fans were able to see some of the younger players play extended minutes and get a vision of the program's future. The team appears to be in good hands for the next couple years with freshmen Olivia Applewhite (seven points), Kari Daugherty (seven points), Sam Mackay (five assists) and redshirt freshman Brittany Wilson (11 points).

Dayton kept up the defensive pressure, however, and continued to force Panther turnovers-32 by the end of the game.

Dayton dominated the game in every facet, out rebounding the Panthers 42-40 as well as recording 22 assists on their 34 field goals.

"There's a certain way to play and I thought we played as well as you can play," Jabir said. "That's pretty basketball, that was just the way you want to play."

Sunday's game featured another Horizon League opponent in the Wright State Raiders. Again, Dayton jumped all over their opponents early on, opening the game with a 17-2 spurt.

The Flyers continued to shoot well from the 3-point line with early threes by Patrice Lalor, Kayla Moses and Kari Daugherty. After a steal and lay-up in transition from Moses, the score was 24-6 with 7:42 to play.

The Flyers' leading scorer Justine Raterman made her presence known in the first half, scoring inside and on the perimeter to amass 15 points.

Despite the strong start from UD, the Raiders made a run late in the half to bring themselves back into the game. Down by as much as 22 at one point, Wright State started getting to the basket more and hitting 3-pointers and were able to bring the lead below double digits with just under two minutes left. A couple Dayton baskets made the score 39-26 after the first frame.

The second half began and Wright State pulled within 10, but Raterman turned it on again and quickly scored eight points. After she hit two threes on consecutive possessions, Dayton had stretched the lead out to 47-29.

Dayton continued to increase its advantage with a strong second half performance. With nine minutes left, McKay hit a layup and foul shot to push the lead to 66-37.

Again UD enjoyed the luxury of a large lead, so coach Jabir could see his younger players in action for the final portion of the game. The team coasted into the final buzzer and took the game 79-58.

Raterman led all scorers with 25 points and Ross finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. Dayton had 11 different players score in the game.

These two wins have helped the Flyers prove they are deserving of their Top 25 ranking. The young team is growing in confidence and ability with each passing game and will look to keep the wins coming when they head to Toledo to take on the Rockets Wednesday.

For any Dayton basketball fan that has not been following the women's team, this weekend was a shout-out-loud to pay attention to them because they are for real.

"We're really unselfish, we're pretty skilled. When we play hard good things happen to us," Jabir said.