To measure the optimism surrounding the UD women’s volleyball team, fans should look no further than the grueling schedule Head Coach Tim Horsmon has on tap in 2006. A total of five Top-25 teams consume the non-conference portion and another tough A10 season looms directly thereafter. The staff thinks they have the team to go head-to-head with these national juggernauts and actually claim a few scalps along the way. The team has been so close to doing just that in the Horsmon era and this year has all the makings of his best team yet. Led by reigning A10 Player of the Year Faye Barhorst and a deep cast of underrated teammates, UD received two votes in the AVCA Preseason Top-25 poll – a program first.

Barhorst is the headline getter at the moment and for good reason. The rail-thin jumping jack is dynamic on offense and just as good at the net defensively. Already a member of the United States A2 National Team, Barhorst has a chance to end her career as the program’s best ever. That’s no casual endorsement considering Dayton has a laundry list of past A10 Players of the Year as long as Santa’s shopping list. There’s no question that Barhorst is the go-to player and opponents will try everything to stop her, but it’s not entirely cavalier to say the UD coaches wouldn’t mind that. The Flyers are anything but a one-trick pony and it’s everyone else on the team that makes Dayton a dangerous foe to the better opponents on the schedule.

Much of that punch should once again come from the sister tandem of Robynne and Adrienne Green. Robynne was a 2nd Team All-A10 performer as an outside hitter and is second-best of all returning players in kills per game. Adrienne finished as an A10 Honorable Mention player at libero. Expect the Greens to pick up where they left off last year.

One of last year’s top freshmen in the A10, sophomore Kortney Norris returns and has a great chance to earn All Conference status in 2006. She finished third on the team in kills. Junior Jamie-Lee Richards, another starter, plays outside hitter and appeared in 134 games a year ago. Look for Richards to be a mainstay once again.

Where Dayton needs an answer is at setter. Nicole Schott was the 2005 A10 Setter of the Year but her graduation leaves a sizeable hole. Fortunately, the Flyers have three talented options to consider.

Freshman setter Sara Meineke, niece of former Flyer basketball great Don Meineke, was one of Kentucky’s best over the last two seasons and was an All-State performer for St. Henry HS. A pair of redshirt sophomores will also contend for a starting spot. Erin Shroeder played her first full season in 2005 and has all the tools to be a reliable setter in Horsmon’s system. Lauren Markowski transferred from NC State in 2005 and sat out last year because of transfer rules. During her freshman year with the Wolfpack, she averaged over 10apg and was a mainstay in the starting lineup.

Sophomore Nicole Bateman transfers in from Louisville where she was a freshman starter on one of the best teams in the country. The Cards went 31-3 as Bateman did most of her damage as a defensive specialist, but look for her to transition closer to the net and take a primary role in scoring kills.

The player to keep an eye on may be redshirt freshman Chauntay Mickens. The 6-2 outside hitter really shined in the competitive UD Alumni game and was highly rated coming out of the Washington, DC, area. Mickens has a great chance to earn All Rookie status in the conference.

Senior Margo Moeller, a defensive specialist, started five matches in 2005 and appeared in six others. Sophomore Mandy Robbe, an Alter HS product, played in 25 matches as an outside hitter and is an underrated defender.

Horsmon has 6-4 sophomore Bethany Akerhielm to insert when he’s looking for more size. Akerhielm played in 21 matches last year and benefited early on by coming from a great prep program in Carmel, IN, where she earned All-State honors. But the tall lumber doesn’t stop there. Freshman middle blocker Lindsay Fletemier stands 6-6 and was one of the tallest recruits in all of Division I-A. More offense comes from fellow freshman Chelsy Christoff, another promising recruit from a long line of prospects pulled from the state of Illinois. Rounding out the newbies is Allison Florian from national power St. Ursula HS in Cincinnati. Florian has a chance to play defense or find action as a libero.

All told, a whopping eight players on the roster stand 6-2 or taller and all of them can get off the floor. In fact, most of them bring multi-sport backgrounds alongside their volleyball resumes.

With the likes of #12 Louisville, #16 Purdue, #18 Arizona, #19 Pepperdine, and #22 Minnesota on the non-conference schedule, there’s no time to figure things out along the way. Three other non-con opponents fielded votes in the preseason Top-25 as well. There’s also no question the A10 season remains difficult with Temple, Xavier, and George Washington among others. The task is daunting, the schedule relentless, the goals extremely high. But this may be the year a lot of coaching staff’s prep work in building Dayton into a national player finally pays dividends. When your head coach has never missed the NCAA tournament or dropped a conference tournament game in his coaching career, there’s a strong likelihood that trend will continue. How far the Flyers can go above and beyond remains a bit cloudy. A giant step in the right direction would consist of an at-large NCAA tournament berth for the first time in program history. For that to happen, UD must pick off a Top-25 team or two. They’ve come within a few critical points in the past of doing just that, but not with a team as talented and deep as this one.

Our prediction: 27-8, A10 regular season champs, A10 tourney champs, NCAA 2nd rd.