DAYTON (OH) — Sunday afternoon’s Atlantic-10 Womens Soccer Championship left nothing to debate as to who’s the best team and who’s the best player. Colleen Williams notched her first career hat trick along with tourney Most Outstanding Player recognition as the Dayton Flyers applied a 5-1 beatdown over the UMass Minutewomen to take the A10 Championship for the third consecutive year. A garbage goal with 14 seconds remaining was the only score UD surrendered in the tournament as the Flyers outscored the opposition 11-1. Dayton improves to 19-3 while UMass likely misses out on the NCAAs and finishes their season at 14-5-2.

As the A10 tournament commenced on Thursday with quarterfinal matches, soccer fans had a host of schools and players to call their favorite to win the tourney title — and label as best player in the league. LaSalle freshman sensation Kelsey Haycook and Richmond goliath Becca Wann tied Colleen Williams for points accumulated in the regular season. LaSalle won the regular season title and both the Explorers and Spiders handed UD their lone conference losses of the season. But the Flyers had the better overall resume’ and home field advantage on their side. The tournament would break all ties and determine the top dogs in a loser-goes-home format.

These questions were answered with an emphatic thud less than a minute into Sunday afternoon’s championship match as junior Colleen Williams buried a rocket to the top left post for the 1-0 Dayton lead. It only got worse for the Minutewomen as UD dominated the opposition with a first half of play that was largely women vs. girls.

Williams scored her second goal of the match in the 10th minute after pinning her defender on her shoulder, muscling through the defense with a dribble drive, and rifling another shot past UMass goalkeeper Emily Cota for the 2-0 Dayton lead. Up a pair of scores, the Flyers never took their foot off the accelerator.

Sophomore Stephanie Emery blasted a shot on goal that took a deflection off a UMass defender, hit the left post, and bounced toward the right post (but inside the goal line) for a commanding 3-0 Flyer lead in the 30th minute.

Between the three goals were more scoring chances inside and outside the box, great runs along the touch lines, overlaps, and quality midfield play that found gaps in the middle third of the field to dissect the UMass defense and allow the Flyers to move possession forward. The Minutewomen spent the entire first half chasing the ball, while the Flyers let the ball do all the work to find the dead spots in the UMass defense.

Juliana Libertin worked extremely hard on the left sideline to carry possession forward and attract a host of defenders. While she had trouble getting around the last defender, she sucked a lot of attention her way and by her work rate alone, opened up the field for her teammates.

Emery provided toughness in the midfield, while Alexis Garcia did what she does best — turning chaos it into controlled soccer. Up top Kelsey Smigel worked as a target played to draw attention, camping out at the top of the box to accept service and look for a shot at the net. The quality effort in the attack earned UD a flurry of corner kicks. When Dayton wasn’t scoring, they were throwing balls in the box and forcing UMass to make goal-saving clears away from danger.

The Flyer back line was as sharp as a tack in the first 45 minutes as UMass hardly ever threatened. As the Flyers built a 3-0 advantage, the UMass players saw the writing on the wall and knew everything but the final score had already been decided. Still, Kathleen Beljan, Kelsey Miller, and Emily Kenyon proved match-ready and made quick work of loose balls around the Flyer goal box — so good in fact they surrendered just one shot in the first half.

The first-minute goal took the oxygen out of UMass’ sails, the second broke their spirit, and the third stuck a fork in em’.

By halftime, UD dominated the stats with a 13-1 lead in shots and massive 7-0 advantage in corner kicks.

With the match completely decided, Dayton lost focus for the first 25 minutes of the second half as the Minutewomen did well to win loose balls, fight for possession, and do their best to salvage some competitive pride in an otherwise uncompetitive thrashing. In defense of the Flyers, it’s oftentimes difficult to stay focused when the match is effectively over. The important work was done and no matter what happened in the second half, the only details left unresolved were how many Flyers would make the A10 All-Tournament team.

Dayton got forward in the 68th minute with a nice turn-and-serve from Smigel along the left side of the penalty box that found Williams heading toward goal. Williams was taken down and UD earned the obvious PK. Senior Emily Kenyon — perhaps the most under-appreciated player in the league — got the command from Head Coach Mike Tucker to take the PK. Fittingly, she pounded it home for her first goal of the year and the 4-0 Flyer lead.

Williams would complete the hat trick in the 71st minute on a quality volley off her right foot that chipped the goalkeeper and found the left corner of the net. Dayton 5, UMass 0.

Other scoring chances nearly hit paydirt at various moments and UMass was rather fortunate to be down by only five goals. The subs came in and some of the main cogs came off the field over the remaining 10 minutes. Dayton gave up a garbage goal just 14 seconds before the final whistle on loose marking in the midfield to make the final score 5-1.

Dayton finished with a 24-6 advantage in shots and 9-0 shutout in corner kicks.

Heading into this weekend’s action, Dayton, Richmond, and LaSalle all had various feathers in their cap to call themselves “league best”. The same goes for Kelsey Haycook, Becca Wann, and Colleen Williams. The results of the weekend however left nothing to debate. Dayton dominated their three opponents with high-level soccer and a high-level effort, showcased more firepower than any other team, dominated defensively, and exacted revenge on a Richmond team that up-ended the Flyers 1-0 during the regular season.

Williams was no less emphatic in her play and with the tournament results in the books, the label of “best player in the league” is hers and hers alone. Finishing the tourney with four goals and three assists, her top competitors (Haycook and Wann) combined for zero goals or assists. A month ago, other players in the league were grabbing headlines. No one else finished the last three weeks of the season better than Williams, and no one else did it in the variety of ways she impacted the game.

For her efforts, Williams was named tourney Most Outstanding Player. She was joined on the All-Tourney team by UD teammates Kelsey Smigel, Juliana Libertin, and GK Jordin Melchert.

At 19-3, UD earns the automatic berth into the NCAA tournament — though they probably shored up an at-large berth earlier in the tournament. With the NCAA First Round being played at 32 host schools, Dayton’s RPI in the #20-25 range suggests the Flyers may host at least one more game this year. The NCAA selection show airs Monday.