DAYTON (OH) — Heading into Friday evening’s A10 Tourney semifinal, the Dayton Flyers had not dropped a match since a 1-0 setback at Richmond on October 16. That remains the case as UD took out a measure of revenge against the Spiders with an impressive 2-0 victory at Baujan Field. Advancing to their fourth A10 Final appearance in a row, UD improves to 18-3, while the Spiders drop to 13-5-3 and likely saw their NCAA chances vanish. Fourth-seeded Massachusetts upset previously undefeated and #1 seed LaSalle in the first semifinal, pitting the Minutewomen against the Flyers on Sunday afternoon.

Friday’s match was a contrast in styles. Dayton typically fields smaller players with more technical skills and better tactics, while Richmond’s season has been all about size, physicality, and long balls up-field to 2011 Offensive Player of the Year Becca Wann. Wann, at 5-11, dwarfed most of UD’s defenders and packed an extra 30lb to her frame to make for a battering ram in the Spider offense. As the primary scorer, Wann was responsible for 15 of UR’s 27 goals this season. Early in the match, it was obvious the Spiders had no intentions of moving away from that approach.

Much like Thursday’s match against Charlotte, it took the Flyers about 10 minutes to find a groove. Richmond started well shortly after kickoff by burying the run of play into the Spider offensive third of the field. Unable to gain possession to stretch the field, UD was forced to clear balls away out of the back line as Richmond pushed players forward.

Wann was an imposing force from the very beginning, positioning herself in the middle of the front line to win head balls, hold service, or run onto long balls played directly at the goal. Possessing excellent speed for a player that also moonlights as a cog on the Richmond basketball team, Wann forced Dayton to throw two defenders at her every time she had the ball or ran onto a pass.

The Flyer defense held tough in those early minutes however and slowly but surely Dayton found more possession by settling the ball and exercising a bit more patience out of the defensive half of the field. Junior Alexis Garcia controlled the midfield and did her usual steady work of taking loose balls and settling them with top-quality traps and dinks to maintain possession and open up the field of play. Sophomore Stephanie Emery got the starting nod alongside her and provided a physical counter-punch to Richmond’s size and physicality.

In the Flyer offense, Colleen Williams was once again playing to her talents, holding possession for teammates and acting as a big target for service out of the back line. Williams was extremely physical and worked hard to make Richmond throw multiple players at her to stop her progress. Freshman Kelsey Smigel worked equally hard and while she had a difficult time getting around UR’s excellent defensive players for most of the night, she nevertheless made them burn a large amount of energy to keep her from getting behind their defense.

Dayton continued to work the ball on the ground and achieve success by running possession through the usual suspects in the offense. Williams distributed well all half and when she wasn’t looking for her own shot, looked elsewhere to feed quality balls to teammates with a better look at the goal.

Defensively, the Flyers caught a break when Richmond countered quickly and served a ball to an unmarked player 35 yards from the nearest defender. Held onside by a flat-footed Flyer back line on the opposite side of the field, she ran directly on to goal with only goalkeeper Jordin Melchert to beat. Her shot was a bit premature and hit Melchert right in the bread basket.

Juliana Libertin once again caused all kinds of trouble on the right flanks, stretching the field with the dribble-drive and cutting inside her defenders to open up the field. The All-Conference player without All-Conference recognition put the Flyers up 1-0 in the 34th minute with a brilliant piece of juking and jiving, followed by a shot that sailed over the UR goalkeeper and nailed the inside of the far post for the unassisted goal. The sequence was top-of-the-line for the Archbishop Hoban HS product and upped her season goal tally to 10 goals — joining Williams and Smigel in that elite company. She also has seven assists.

Halftime stats favored UD in shots 10-7, while Richmond owned a 3-1 edge in corner kicks.

Up 1-0 to start the second half, The next goal might win the match. If the Flyers could punch another score in the net, it could put the game out of reach. Likewise, if Richmond ties it up, the momentum might be enough to give UR an edge late in regulation or overtime.

Thankfully, the Flyers scored just six minutes after the re-start on one of the best sequences of the season. Williams showcased her vintage hammer-to-nail physicality up top by winning a ball and turning the corner at the left baseline. She served a pass toward the 18 yard line where Garcia ran onto the feed and tattooed a perfect shot to the upper 90 of the far left post for the 2-0 Dayton lead.

Over the next half hour, both sides battled like a pair of top-shelf Atlantic-10 opponents. Firmly in command and with less of a need to take risky chances, Dayton made it a point to send fewer players forward on long runs in order to save their defensive legs.

The Flyer back line had their hands full dealing with Richmond’s direct play and willingness to send long balls over the top. When one Flyer defender got beat however, another was there to provide help and save the day. Organization in the back — for the most part — was excellent. Kelsey Miller played a full 90 minutes for the first time in a couple weeks and did well in the central defense to keep things held together. Emily Kenyon, the other All-Conference performer without All-Conference recognition, had her best match of the season with timely tackles and run-downs of players on the loose. A critical tackle on Wann late in the second half near the left baseline was indicative of her importance all evening.

Meghan Scharer provided added spunk on defense and her speed proved to be an asset at times when picking off service and turning it forward.

Richmond took more chances on offense over the final 10 minutes of play. That left some room in their back line for the Flyers to find open space on counter-attacks. Williams had a pair of super looks directly inside the box, but couldn’t finish and in fairness, were chances that may have been challenged harder (and finished) were it a 0-0 game.

By match end, Dayton earned a 21-12 triumph in shots and 8-5 victory in corner kicks. The Spiders, now 13-5-3 with the loss and in the high-40s of the RPI, probably needed the automatic bid to make the NCAA Tournament. Dayton officially locked in their NCAA bid and will look for one more victory to lock up the A10 hardware.

Goalkeeper Jordin Melchert had one of her best matches of the season between the pipes. A couple bobbles or indecisive sequences made for scary moments, but she otherwise held her line all night and made a couple diving saves to preserve the shutout and improve her overall record to 8-0.

Third-seed Dayton takes on #4 seed UMass Sunday afternoon at 1pm. UMass upset the LaSalle Explorers with a goal in the opening minutes, and held on for the 1-0 victory in spite of being thoroughly outplayed. The Flyers are hoping to win their first A10 Tournament title in four tries as tourney hosts at Baujan Field, and their third straight conference tourney title overall.