Volleyball Notes from Dayton Flyer Classic
September 12, 2009
Posted September 12, 2009
Posted By Jacob Rosen
udjrosen@gmail.com
**Friday Game vs. UCONN: 7:00 pm**
UCONN; Won vs. Creighton (25-16, 22-25, 17-25, 25-23, 15-13) and Won vs. Samford (18-25, 25-14, 25-17, 25-28) = "The Huskies return five starters this season, inlcuding Chauntay Mickens, a preseason all-conference selection. Mickens played for Dayton in her freshman season. The Huskies are 3-5 this season and Jordan Kirk leads the attack averaging 2.76 kills per set."
FIRST SET: Junior Tiffany Gaerke aces Flyers past Huskies in the opening set 25-22. Her four kills tied All-American Lindsay Fletemier for tops in the first set while her serve ace marked the winning point.
SECOND SET: Dayton's depth provided help but their 6'6" star made the difference. The junior Fletemier dominated at the end, putting the final three points on the board to give the Flyers a 25-16 victory.
THIRD SET: The Flyers got off to a hot start in the ultimate set, holding leads of 7-2 and 16-8 early. It was smooth sailing from there as Dayton won their fourth 3-set match with a convincing 25-16 edge.
**Saturday Game vs. Samford: 11:00 am**
SAMFORD; Lost to Creighton 3-0 (23-25, 25-27, 15-25) and Lost to UCONN (25-18, 14-25, 17-25, 18-25) = "Samford enters the weekend at 3-3. Allie Bettinger leads the Bulldogs offensively averaging 3.05 kills per set. Libero Alexis Bauer averages 3.67 digs per set. As a team, the Bulldogs average 12.24 kills per set and hold a .179 attack efficiency."
FIRST SET: An early timeout proved to be a huge momentum boost for Dayton after facing a 5-3 deficit where all three of their points came on serve errors by the Samford Bulldogs. Hannah Clancy, Tiffany Gaerke, Kacie Hausfeld and Paige Vargas then led the charge as the Flyers took a 12-7 edge, making it a 9-2 run since the initial timeout. The lead expanded to 17-11 thanks to the unrelenting Dayton attack, and despite a late rush from the Bulldogs, the Flyers held on to win by the score of 25-21. Amanda Cowdrey's five digs led the way and her three kills tied a team high in the first set.
SECOND SET: Early miscues plagued Dayton as Samford took a 6-4 advantage and it was back-and-forth from there, with the Flyers holding a narrow 13-12 lead. No team had a lead of more than one until 14-16 when a serve from Samford's Allie Bettinger touched the net and fell down on the wrong end. The Bulldogs would extend their lead to four, the largest deficit Dayton faced in the tournament thus far. The margin would hit five before the Flyers narrowed it down to 21-23 in the waning moments and the Bulldogs then came through in the end, maintaining game point in taking the second set 22-25.
THIRD SET: Missing out on the first point yet again, Dayton came back to hold a 3-1 lead and then a long rally point followed by a Samford miscue made it 7-5 in favor of the home team. The Bulldogs responded with four straight points and Dayton responded with five straight while later making it 14-10. A handful of impressive moves including a block by Lindsay Feltemeier to move to game point helped the Flyers maintain the advantage for the rest of the set, holding on to win 25-18. Dayton had four blocks in the set and held the Bulldogs to a .031 attack percentage.
FOURTH SET: Defense was the story in the beginning, as the tall combination of sophomore Anna Eytchison and junior Lindsay Fletemier blocked another Samford shot to make it 4-3. The Flyers later expanded the lead to 9-5 and 15-7 over the tiring Bulldogs. It seemed like the most uneven match of the tournament thus far for Dayton, although Samford worked hard to cut the deficit to 20-16. Dayton won the final set 25-18 yet again, holding off the upstart Bulldogs in improving to 8-0 thus far on the year.
**Saturday Game vs. Creighton: 7:00 pm**
CREIGHTON; Won vs. Samford (25-23, 27-25, 25-15) and Lost to UCONN (16-25, 25-22, 25-17, 23-25, 13-15) = "Creighton opens up the tournament 1-5, after picking up a win in their home-opener vs. Texas Tech. The Bluejays are led by All-American Jessica Houts who averages 2.90 kills per set and 1.90 blocks per set. Libero Nayka Benitez averages 4.35 digs per set."
FIRST SET: Lindsay Fletemier with a block and a point on the first one of the game set a much larger difference than in the entire match against Samford. Her and Gaerke then blocked the second point, getting the crowd really into it as the Flyers went on to take a 3-0 advantage. Dayton cruised to a 10-5 edge, maintaining their tough style of play against the Creighton squad. The lead stayed between three to five points for most of the action until Creighton's Nayka Benitez hammered back-to-back aces to make it 16-14 and the BlueJays later took a 20-19 lead. Creighton then took care of business with a 25-21 final score by capitalizing on several straight Dayton errors at the end and winning 14 of the final 19 points. The Flyers totaled seven attack errors, three service errors and three receiving errors in the set.
SECOND SET: The Flyers got off to another hot start, leading to a Creighton timeout with a four-point lead at 5-1 and later 8-3. Nayka Benitez then took over, knocking two more service aces to cut it to 8-7. It was a back-and-forth contest from there as the two teams alternated one-point leads for over 20 points. Creighton was the first to strike blood, taking a 21-18 lead that evaporated quickly into another tie the back of some impressive serves from Kacie Hausfeld and several digs by Amanda Cowdrey. Two points for the Jays made it 23-21 however leading to a Dayton timeout and proving to be too much to handle in the end as Creighton won 25-22 despite a late service error. Through two sets, the Flyers have a combined 16 service and receiving errors compared to just eight for the BlueJays.
THIRD SET: Creighton broke a 6-6 tie with some more helpful play by Nayka Benitez and a block by Jessica Houts made it 10-7 in favor of the Jays. Coach Sheffield then took a timeout after another Houts block as Creighton held a 12-10 lead with Dayton on the verge of losing for the first time in 2009. The Flyers then broke a 13-all tie with a huge point on a Becky Novacek kill after a massive rally to give Dayton a lead. Not to be outdone, the Jays took a huge point after another long rally to tie it back at 15. With the crowd getting into it, the Flyers took a 19-17 lead and then a 21-17 advantage making Creighton burn two timeouts in just five minutes. The streak continued until the end as Dayton won by the final margin of 25-18 to continue their play against the BlueJays.
FOURTH SET: Carrying over the third set momentum, Dayton scored the first three points of the set only to see Creighton respond with five consecutive points of their own. The Jays made it 8-5 on the back of successful serves from Megan Bober and a 10-6 Creighton edge forced a timeout from Coach Sheffield. A service ace by Amanda Cowdrey helped to cut the deficit back to just two, as did a Lindsay Feltemier tip to make it 14-12. Back-to-back double touch violations tied it at 15-15 where it would remain until an attack error by the Jays finally gave Dayton a lead at 19-17. The Flyers then made it 23-18 and would forced the crucial fifth set with an impressive score of 25-20 as they clinched the final point on a controversial final call on a tip violation by the Jays. Through four sets now, Becky Novacek and Lindsay Fletemier combined for 30 of Dayton's 56 kills and had a combined attack percentage of .491.
FIFTH SET: As the two teams geared up for the deciding fifth set to 15 points, Nayka Benitez of four service aces so far served into the net to give Dayton the first point. Another double tip violation came against the BlueJays as the Flyers held a 3-1 advantage that later became 8-1 thanks to two service aces by Tiffany Gaerke. At this point, the Flyers had won 27 of the past 38 points in this game dating back to their 10-6 deficit in the fourth set. The run would finally end but not the Dayton success as they would dominate the entire proceedings and hold an 11-2 lead following a kill by Amanda Cowdrey. They would then win by the final margin of 15-5 following a Novacek kill.
(The above quotes and team previews are from the University of Dayton Athletics Media Program for the Dayton Flyer Classic. This free program can be viewed online on the Volleyball Web site.)
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