A historic women’s volleyball season comes to a close
Pictured is UD’s women volleyball team in their game against SLU. Photo credit Olivia Shirk for Flyer News.
Clare Mathews | Sports Editor
The Dayton Flyers Women’s Volleyball team had a spectacular season that just recently concluded. The Flyers were taken down in the second round of the NCAA tournament by No. 10 Washington State on the Cougars home court. This was only the 17th time they made an appearance in the NCAA tournament and just the 10th time in Flyers Volleyball history that they made it to the second round.
Over the entirety of the season, the Flyers only recorded 3 losses, all of which coming to teams that were ranked in the top 15 nationally at the time of the match. The overall season record was 32-3 and the Flyers were undefeated in Conference play with a record of 18-0. This Flyers Volleyball team also set a program record of a 27-game win streak.
Let’s take a look at some of the other accomplishments of this team:
- The Flyers were Atlantic-10 Regular Season Champions
- Atlantic-10 Tournament Champions
- As a team, the Flyers led the A-10 in nearly every category: points, hitting percentage, assists, kills, blocks, service aces
- The Flyers were at one point, ranked No. 16 in the nation, and finished the season with a ranking of No. 19
- Lexie Almodovar broke in to the Top-10 in program history for career kills, reaching past the 1,000 kill mark
- Alysa Miller surpassed 1,000 career assists
- Amelia Moore reached 1,000 career kills and became the third player in program history to record 1,000 kills and 500 blocks in her career
- Lexie Almodovar led the conference in aces
- Amelia Moore led the conference in blocks
- Alyssa Miller led the conference in assists
- Head Coach, Tim Horsmon, was awarded 2023 A-10 Conference Volleyball Coach of the Year
- Lexie Almodovar was the 2023 A-10 Conference Volleyball Player of the Year
- Lexie Almodovar, Amelia Moore, and Taylor Russell were all named to the All-Conference First Team
- Alyssa Miller was named to the All-Conference Second Team
- Lexie Almodovar, Amelia Moore, and Alayna Yates were all named to the A-10 Conference All-Academic Team
- 6 players earned an A-10 Weekly awards throughout the season (Almodovar, Kaminski, Moore, Russell, Winner, Yates), with multiple earning more than one
- Amelia Moore was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association Midwest All-Region Team
- Lexie Almodovar was named the Midwest Region Player of the Year by the American Volleyball Coaches Association
The statistics speak for themselves. The Flyers absolutely dominated this year. We want to congratulate the team on their Conference Championship Title and success making it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Thanks to these Flyers, The #FlyerLegacy lives on!
Congratulations to the players: Brooke Smith, Gaby Arroyo, Anna MacDonald, Lexie Almodovar, Amelia Moore, Kaitlyn McNeel, Alyssa Miller, Emily Young, Taylor Russell, Emory Hinckley, Liana Sarkissian, Mia Otten, Brooke Nichols, India Gantt, Alayna Yates, Ava Larkin, Lindsey Winner, and Karissa Kaminski.
Additionally, congratulations to the coaching staff, Tim Horsmon, Tim Balice, Christa Cooper, Kaylee Thomas, as well as team managers, Isabella Caruso and Jocelyn Leong.
Congratulate the team if you see them around campus! Huge shoutout to all of Flyer Nation for your support throughout this awesome season!