DAYTON (OH) — I did not attempt to speak with the players or coaches this week. With an entire week of practice, preparation and classes condensed into two days I felt it was appropriate to leave them alone.

LAST WEEK

Last week UD finished 2-1 in a very tough tournament. The tournament was hosted by #8 minnesota and included #22 Northern Iowa and Baylor who was ranked below the Flyers.

NORTHERN IOWA

We started the tournament playing against #22 Northern Iowa. Kelly had warned me that Bre Peyton the setter for UNI was a handful. Kelly said that she would attack from all over the court and she was everthing expected of her. After set 1 though UD kept her contained. She finished with twelve kills and five errors with 40 attempts. This was a hitting percentage of .150 and much of that damage was done in set 1.

Kelly thought that the team played well after set one and the stats bear that out. In set one UNI hit .295 with a sideout percentage of 63%. In the remaining four sets their hitting percentage was .135 with a sideout percentage of 52.75%. That is a tremendous improvement.

In the end UD beat a very good team that beat Minnesota in that tournament. One person who was at the match said “They didn’t set a ball more than 2′ over the net the entire match”. UD was up to the task as their blocking improved as the match went on.

Much of the credit in sets 4-5 was given to Yvonne Marten who finished with seven kills and 6 block assists. Other blocking leaders were Lindsay Fletemier with 8 BA and 1 solo and Becky Novacek with 3 BAs.

But, you don’t win a match like this without a lot of digs. Amanda had 27 digs, Paige had 22, Jessica had 18, Rachael B had 16 and Rackel K had 14.
The hitting percentages could have been better but this was a tough match where everyone contributed toward a win.

BAYLOR

I listened to the Baylor coach being interviewed on their website prior to this tournament. His team went to the sweet sixteen last year. He feels that this year’s team is less experienced but has more overall talent. He hoped to have a 2-1 record in this tournament to help their NCAA resume. Obviously he hoped/expected for a win against Dayton as one of those two wins.

This was another match where UD played great defense after the first set. UD lost the first set 25-22 when Baylor outhit them .255 to .220. But, after set one UD held Baylor to .031 hitting.

Rackel K. led the Flyers with 20 digs followed by Paige with 18, Jessica with 17 and Amanda with 13.

The defense was terrific but the offense was a little bit behind. The overall hitting percentage was .200 which we hope to see improving against good teams as the season goes on.

MINNESOTA

The Minnesota match was expected to be another tough one. UD beat UNI in five sets while UNI beat Minnesota in five sets. UD beat Baylor in four sets while Minnesota beat Baylor in four sets. Even with the home crowd you would expect a tough four or five set match based upon what had happened in the tournament.

On this night Minnesota was the better team by a substantial margin. Whether it was due to fatigue or just playing poorly UD was beaten easily by Minnesota.
Minnesota came in with four players hitting .400 which is unheard of. Only two players hit .400 against UD but the team hit .352. You don’t lose many matches when you hit .352.

I wasn’t able to see the match so I will not comment beyond what is obvious.

THIS WEEK

UD travels to Nebraska where they will play Nebraska on Thursday, Illinois on Friday and Western Michigan on Saturday. Playing two of the top 10 teams in the country on back to back nights is no easy task but I expect the team to play better than they did against Minnesota. When you are playing teams of this caliber it is important to have great ball contol and to put pressure on the other team’s service receive.

NEBRASKA

The players have been looking forward to the challenge of this match. Nebraska is known for their great fan support and average over 5000 fans per match last year.

Nebraska is hitting .282 as a team. Their big hitter is 6’4″ Brooke Delano a middle blocker. The matchup of Brooke versus Lindsay should be fun to watch, and one of the keys to the match.

Nebraska has two 6’5″ Right Side Hitters which pose a mismatch for the Flyers. How the Flyers do against these two right side hitters could easily determine the match.

Nebraska has six servers with three aces or more. This will stress the UD service receive. You don’t want to be out of system when playing against a top 10 team.

ILLINOIS
If you aren’t satisfied with the challenge of playing #7 Nebraska on their home floor you then get the opportunity to play against #3 Illinois. Illinois cruised against Texas last weekend beating texas in three straight sets ending Texas’ 25 match home winning streak. Against Texas Illinois hit .361 and served six aces.

Illinois knocked off Dayton last year. Most of you probably remember Laura DeBruler in that match. But, they have a lot of weapons. As a team they are hitting .302 and have five players with more than 30 kills.
On serve they are averaging 2.2 aces per set compared to 1.0 for their opposition.

You cannot focus on just stopping DeBruler and many times will be left with a one on one block.

As with most matches if you can control the 1st pass you can compete but if you give Illinois free balls you will suffer for it.

WESTERN MICHIGAN

Western Michigan is 6-1. They have won five matches in a row and during those five matches have only allowed the opponent to score 20 points twice.

Western Michigan won the IUPUI tournament last weekend and their setter Sam Viox was MVP. Their freshman libero Lena Oliver and freshman outside hitter Ali Gossen were also named to the all tournament team. It is pretty obvious that this is a talented team but relatively inexperienced. They will face Illinois and Nebraska prior to facing UD.

Key stats show that WMU is hitting .265 as a team. Their service receive is .933 compared to their opponents .940. They are getting 1.7 blocks per set and giving up 1.5 blocks per set.

The statistics don’t scare you but this is a young, improving team.