DAYTON (OH) -- The Dayton Flyers swept the last weekend of the A10 regular season on Sunday afternoon with a hard-fought 3-1 victory over league rival
Charlotte. Combined with Friday's win over St. Louis, UD now stands at 16-3 (7-2) heading into the A10 postseason tournament. Charlotte, in dire need of a win to secure the sixth and final postseason spot, falls to 7-9-4 (4-4-1).
The Flyers got off to a great start early in the match, piecing together the same level of precision they demonstrated in Friday night's classroom session against St. Louis. Knocking the ball around and finding the feet of teammates in space, UD did well to move the ball upfield -- especially on the flanks where Juliana Libertin and Kelsey Smigel could go to work.
Fans enjoyed solid target forward play once again as the Flyers posted up their strikers 30 yards from net and asked for quality service at their feet. In most cases it worked, though Charlotte's defense was tough-minded and offered far more physicality than most other opponents in the A10.
UD caught a break (and capitalized) in the 10th minute when a shot off the boot of Colleen Williams found the feet of Kelsey Smigel inside the Niner penalty box. The freshman cleaned up the mixer to give UD the early 1-0 lead.
Ten minutes later, the Flyers cashed in on a corner kick with the same two players teaming up. This time, Williams collected the overdrawn service on the right side of the box, spun, and placed a shot directly at the near post. The ball took a deflection and Smigel once again cleaned things up from close range -- though fans thought it might have been an own goal. Nonetheless, Dayton was in command with a 2-0 advantage just 20 minutes after kickoff.
Charlotte battled back however and had the physicality and speed to give UD problems on defense. Far more talented than St. Louis on Friday evening, the Niners proved a difficult opponent to keep quiet. Their best offense resulted in long balls through the Flyer back line that caught the UD defense flat-footed. The Niners' speedy forwards ran directly onto the service and tried to turn the corner near the baseline. Dayton's back line did just enough to turn those dangerous chances away, but Charlotte kept applying pressure and serving numerous balls in the box.
Charlotte also took advantage of their tackling and persistence in the offensive third of the field by earning six first half corner kicks. The Flyers finally botched one defensively in the 35th minute on a goalkeeping error, trimming the Dayton lead to 2-1.
The remaining 10 minutes of the first half went back and forth with neither side dominating possession. Halftime stats were split with UD owning a 11-8 edge in shots while the Niners earned a 6-3 lead in corners.
Dayton, juggling the lineup all afternoon due to injuries and match-ups, brought Kathleen Beljan into the game and took out Kelsey Miller in the back line to start the second half. Libertin dropped back into a central defensive role late in the first half alongside Emily Kenyon and played the entire second half there. In the midfield, the Flyers tried Stephanie Emery and Sarah Senoyuit to offset Charlotte's physicality.
As the second half played on, the Flyers had a couple through-balls to Colleen Williams and Smigel, but Charlotte's back line was stingy enough in most cases to clear the ball away. The middle 20 minutes of the second half swung in favor of the Niners as they used long throw-ins and more corner kicks to pin UD into a defensive bunker. Dayton had trouble clearing the ball away and gaining possession. Charlotte took advantage and placed considerable pressure on UDs back line -- including converted striker Juliana Libertin. Libertin stepped up and held tough however, along with her defensive teammates. Goalkeeper Jordin Melchert tipped a long-range Niner shot over the crossbar to preserve the lead mid-way through the second half.
Over the last 15 minutes, Dayton once again took control. Much of that credit went to the midfield play of Josie Grant and her decisive runs to win the ball both in the air and on the ground during crucial 50/50 challenges. As she stepped it up, her teammates followed. Williams started winning headers. The match became very physical but UD embraced the style and did well to push back when things got heated.
That extra effort paid off in the 89th minute when Alexis Garcia won a header at midfield and played the ball down the line to Smigel. Smigel beat her defender and cut inside toward the box, placing a soft pass to Williams camped out directly in front of the goal mouth. With the Niner goalkeeper largely defenseless and out of position, Williams put the chance away for the 3-1 lead and proverbial nail in the coffin. Smigel earned the assist, but the entire sequence would have never happened without Garcia's willingness to win an aerial challenge at midfield.
For the match, UD won the battle in shots 20-9 while Charlotte took nine corners compared to just three for Dayton.
Charlotte back-doored themselves into the A10 tourney in spite of the loss, and was a far better opponent than their record might indicate. Few sub .500 teams have the physical tools, speed, and tactics to battle with Dayton for 90 minutes, but the Niners were an extremely tough nut to crack all afternoon. In fact, they might have been the best A10 foe to play at Baujan Field all season. For reasons only their program knows of, they should have been a league contender with the tools at their disposal.
That said, Dayton stepped up and had to play well to win. For the most part they did just that. While the execution wasn't as sharp over the entire match as it was Friday evening, the level of competition was much tougher and UD showed a level of grit and determination late in the match that went missing for most of October. As the A10 tournament commences next weekend at Baujan Field, UD is once again playing well.
The Flyers could be seeded as high as second and as low as fourth -- with the top two seeds earning byes into the semifinals.
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