Flyers Volleyball soaring into conference play
Pictured is Redshirt Junior Alayna Yates. Photo credit Zach Merz.
The Dayton Flyers 2023-24 Volleyball season is off to an incredible start. They hosted three tournaments in the Frericks Center, along with a home matchup against Louisville and going to Iowa for the UNI Tournament. The Flyers have an overall record of 11 wins and two losses.
The Flyers opened the season with a sweep of Western Kentucky. The No. 24 in the AVCA Rankings at the time. This first tournament they hosted was the Flyer Invitational. The Flyers beat Drake University 3-2 and lost their next game against Marquette in the fifth set.
The Dayton Flyer Classic was a success for the Flyers as they left with 3 wins. They won against North Dakota State on Sept. 1 and won against Butler University and Ohio University the next day.
The Flyers had a non-tournament game against #2 ranked Louisville on Sept. 6 in the Frericks Center. It was a back-and-forth night, with Louisville ultimately coming away with a win in the fifth sets.
In the match, junior setter Alyssa Miller recorded 41 assists, her fourth 40+-assist match of the season. Lexie Almodovar, an outside-hitter, and redshirt junior scored 22 points. Another notable performance came from Karissa Kaminski, a defensive specialist/libero sophomore, who had a team-best 14 digs.
The Dayton Flyer Invitational, the third and final tournament hosted in the Frericks Center. The weekend started with a 5-set win over the University of Illinois on Friday evening. On Saturday, UD swept Wright State 3-1 and Ball State 3-1.
This past weekend the Flyers walked away with 3 straight set wins against Northern Illinois University, University of North Iowa and University of North Dakota. After these games, UD Volleyball has recorded 5 consecutive sweeps this season.
The successful start to the season for the Flyers does not go unrecognized. After two weeks of receiving votes in the AVCA/TARAFLEX Top 25 Division 1 polls, the Flyers broke into the rankings at No. 25 as of Sept. 10. Now, the Flyers are sitting at No. 23 in the NCAA Division 1 Women’s Volleyball Rankings.
Not only have the Flyers earned their NCAA ranking, two Flyers have been recognized with Atlantic-10 Player of the Week Awards. Alayna Yates was named the A-10 Co-Player of the Week and Karissa Kaminski earned A-10 Defensive Player of the Week.
Although Dayton is ranked second in the conference according to the 2023 Preseason Poll, the Flyers performances the past few weeks have shown they could be serious competition in the A-10, and potentially even beyond. Conference play begins in Chicago against the Preseason Poll No. 1 Loyola Chicago Ramblers.
See below for a list of upcoming Flyers Volleyball games l https://daytonflyers.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule/2023