The rivalry of 1-75 is back in full force yet again, as the Dayton Flyers women's basketball team travels to Xavier Saturday night.

One week in advance of the men's team hosting the Musketeers, the UD women look to continue their hot conference play at the Cintas Center. It will be the third straight contest when Dayton's opponent enters the game with an undefeated conference record and the second in a row on the road.

It will also be the first matchup of the year between the two squads, and a rematch of the Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinals. Despite losing twice to their rivals during the season, the Flyers upset top-seeded Xavier 63-60 before falling to Richmond in the semifinals.

That same Richmond team was the victim of an 83-31 beat down at UD Arena last Saturday.

"It was unbelievable," sophomore center Casey Nance said about the experience. "Our biggest accomplishment was keeping with the lead."

Dayton then began a two-game road swing with a pivotal match up against the Duquesne Dukes Wednesday night in Pittsburgh. Entering that game, the red-hot Dukes were 14-5 and a perfect 4-0 in the conference as well.

Now the attention shifts to Xavier as the two teams will play each other for the fourth time in the past 13 months. XU is a veteran team with five seniors as opposed to just one for Dayton, and this game could signal a possible changing of the guard in conference domination.

"Xavier is a great team this year and them being ranked so high gives us a lot more motivation although they already are our rivals," sophomore forward Justine Raterman said before the start of Atlantic 10 play.

The Musketeers are annually one of the best mid-major schools in the country and are currently 10th in the nation according to the Associated Press. Their average margin of victory in their first four conference wins was 22.5 points per game.

One big difference for Xavier this season is the return of redshirt junior Amber Harris (6'6"), a preseason first-team selection in the conference. She missed all of last season with an injury but currently is first on the team with 14.6 points as well as second with 8.9 rebounds per game.

"We have to really show up with a sense of purpose. Xavier is an amazingly talented team at every single position," coach Jabir said about Saturday's contest. He also credited Head Coach Kevin McGuff for the rising success of the Xavier program that will assuredly win 20-plus games for the sixth consecutive season.

Xavier has six players currently averaging eight points or more per game and leads the league in scoring at 73.2 points per contest. They also are in charge of the A-10 lead in terms of team field goal percentage, rebounding margin, blocked shots and defensive field goal percentage allowed.

Thus, the key to any game against the Musketeers will be to slow down their offense and find a way to dominate the glass. In fact, in three games against Dayton last season, sisters Ta'Shia (6'6"), and April Phillips (6'0") averaged a combined 22.3 points and 24.3 rebounds per contest.

"Casey is a big part of that but we have a good team defense," said Head Coach Jabir. He said that the team likes to play five against one, keying in on some of the main scorers for the other team.

The tallest player on the team at 6'4", Nance said she is grateful for her role as the defensive stopper for the Flyers. She will be up for a huge test on Saturday against the big forwards and all of the other scorers for Xavier.

Nance said the team is full of confidence coming off their impressive showing last weekend at UD Arena.

"It proved just how good we can be," she said with a big smile on her face in anticipating their monster week of road tests.