CINCINNATI — The Dayton womens soccer team is one step closer to an NCAA birth after beating Rhode Island 4-2 in the semifinals of the Atlantic-10 postseason tournament Friday night at Xavier University. Dayton improves to 16-4 on the year and will play for the tournament title — as well as the important conference NCAA bid — against the Xavier Muskeeters who defeated UMass 1-0 in the second semifinal match. Dayton and Xavier will meet for the third straight time in the A-10 Tourney Finals.

Dayton took the field hoping to up-end the URI Rams for the second time this season. The Flyers won a hard-fought 1-0 contest at Baujan Field earlier in the year that propelled Dayton into the conference lead for good. A more inspired Rhode Island squad started Friday’s game however and it was Dayton who had to make the first half adjustments. The Rams came out with a bundle of energy to open the game and made good things happen for the #4 seed as they were quicker to loose balls on the pitch, won the aerial game, and positioned themselves for quick counter-attacks that caught the Flyers off guard. In fact, the Rams put considerable pressure on the Flyer goal mouth in the first 15 minutes of the game, but Dayton withstood the punishment and avoided an early giveaway.

As the half wore on, Dayton found more opportunities to move the ball into the Ram defensive third, but several through-balls to Missy Gregg failed to generate the first score of the game. Just as Rhode Island seemed content on playing for a first half tie against the #1 seeded Flyers however, Dayton got a break when Erin Showalter’s redirect into the URI box was misplayed by a Ram defender and headed backwards. The ball sailed over the URI goalkeeper’s head and into the net for an own-goal that proved to be a major momentum shifter. After this happened, the Flyers were never the same, taking control of the game and playing some of the best soccer fans have seen all year.

Dayton took little time showing who was boss as the second half got underway. Junior Bridget Bushman collected a ball on the right side of the box and hammered one over the URI goalkeeper’s head from a remarkable angle that gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead just two minutes into the final half. Rhode Island started to fall apart from the Flyer machine, but URI forward Shannon Kittleson kept Dayton in check by blasting one over the outstretched hands of Stephanie Weisenfeld to cut the lead to 2-1. Just as the Rams entertained ideas of a comeback however, Dayton answered the call with an emphatic “no way” as Judi Aschenbrener scored five minutes later to increase the lead to 3-1 and essentially ice it for the Flyers with just 20 minutes left to play.

Missy Showtime Gregg added an insurance goal in the 81st minute after beating the URI goalkeeper to the far post from the left side of the penalty box. Stacey DeLuca replaced Weisenfeld in the Flyer net for the remaining minutes of the game and yielded a goal to Stephanie Boisvert in the 85th minute after a scramble in the box. Flyer freshman Erin Skladany’s shot with two seconds left in the match hit the far post after the URI goalkeeper charged Skladany and left an open net behind her.

In all, the Flyers started off slow and were fortunate to take a 1-0 lead into halftime, but a completely different squad took the field in the second half and simply outmuscled, outhustled, and outfought Rhode Island for the remaining 45 minutes of play. Dayton became blue-collar and everyone pitched in to do the dirty work of chasing down loose balls, winning headers, and picking off errant passes. In many respects, the second half was the culmination of an entire year’s progress, and the Flyers took yet another step in a positive direction as they search for their sweet spot.

In particular, freshman Judi Aschenbrener was a catalyst for much of the rekindled spirit. The Flyer forward hustled mightily for long balls played up the wing and won countless possessions in the middle third of the field that led to positive things all evening. Aschenbrener even showed off some of her foot skills by juking and jiving to create free space for crosses in the box or layoffs to overlapping midfielders. It was exactly what the Flyers needed and good enough to earn Aschenbrener her first UDPride Player of the Game. Not to be forgotten however, goalkeeper Stephanie Weisenfeld played yet another strong game and came up huge on a number of occasions in the first half to keep the score 0-0. Ingrid Zielke and Erin Showalter had solid games as well — as did the entire team.

As well as Dayton’s second half was however, they can play better. And if they do, they will win the tournament final on Sunday afternoon. Lock, stock, and barrel. The Flyers are peaking at the right time and if they bring the same intensity from the last 45 minutes of the URI game into the title match for an entire game, this squad could do some serious damage to just about any team around.

All the offseason conditioning, weight training, gassers, two-a-days in the summer, non-conference schedule, and conference grind have come down to Sunday afternoon. This is what every player wished for at the beginning of the season and it’s finally here: a chance to reign total and complete supremacy in the Atlantic-10 Conference and to represent the Univ. Dayton in the NCAA Tournament. There are no more “we’ll get em’ next times” or second chances. One item of business is left on the table and it’s time to take what is rightly ours. Let’s get it on.