MENS HOOPS

Saturday scrimmage…

The Dayton Flyers will hold their second public scrimmage of fall practice on Saturday at 11am at the Frericks Center. The Flyers are moving the action to the 5,000-seat Frericks Center to get accustomed to the small, steamy, tinderbox conditions the team will face at the Lahaina Civic Center in the Maui Invitational.

Exhibition on the way…

Athletes in Action will visit the UD Arena on Nov. 8, for the first preseason game of the year for Oliver Purnell’s squad. AIA recently beat Wright State 85-60 though the Raiders were without two of their best players – point guard Joe Bills and wingman Kevin Melson. The final preseason tuneup will take place on Nov. 13, against the Premier All-Stars.

New voice(s) of the Flyers…

Jeff Stevens, local DJ at MIX 107.7FM in Dayton has been chosen as the new PA announcer for UD mens basketball games. Stevens has considerable PA experience and was the voice of the Dayton Dragons at Fifth Third Field this year. Don Skelton, longtime Centerville HS varsity girls soccer coach, will be calling the womens basketball games this year. Skelton, like Stevens, has many years of experience in front of a microphone as has announced HS football and other playoff games for over 20 years.

Coach speaks…

Head Coach Oliver Purnell appeared on 790 The Score (WSKO) out of Providence, RI, yesterday to talk about the Dayton Flyers. Purnell ran through the roster and supplied brief comments on each player, then fielded questions from the hosts regarding the difficult schedule facing his team and the security of Bruiser Flint’s job at UMass. Purnell said Dayton deserves from recognition in the Top-25 polls but newcomers must step up as the days go by and be ready to make immediate contributions as they learn the ropes from the returning veterans

MENS SOCCER

Tourney Takes…

Head Coach Dave Schureck’s Flyers are the #1 seed in the Atlantic-10 Tournament, facing #4 George Washington at 5:30pm on Friday at the URI Soccer Complex. The winner will play for the tournament title against the UMass/URI winner. The tournament champ will face the champ from the TAAC in a NCAA play-in game that sources tell UDPride will be hosted by the Atlantic-10 school. Dayton and GW tied 2-2 in the regular season finale for both schools in a contest played just a week ago.Kaszuba on top…
Senior forward R.J. Kaszuba won the A-10 scoring race this year, racking up 43 points on 17 goals and 4 assists.

Must be the new math…

Despite a gaudy 14-3-1 record and wins over #19 URI and UMass on the road, the Dayton Flyers have yet to crack the Top-25 rankings in the major polls. In fact, the NSCAA National Polls have URI (13-5-1) ranked #21 while the Flyers merely receive votes. The Rams finished third in the Atlantic-10 this season behind the Flyers and UMass, yet sit perched above all other league schools when it comes to the NSCAA. Dayton is currently ranked #3 in the NSCAA Great Lakes region, behind Indiana and Ohio State. The Buckeyes, 8-4-4 and losers to Cincinnati last week (UD beat UC 4-3), are also in the national rankings along with Indiana. What makes the NSCAA rankings more questionable is that Dayton is #42 in the Oct. 24 SIS Power Ratings while the URI Rams are #50.

In another poll, Dayton fares a bit better. SoccerTimes.com has the Flyers ranked #26 and just one vote shy of a Top-25 ranking.

Postseason honors…

R.J. Kaszuba is the 2000 winner of the A-10 Offensive Player of the Year award. The senior forward led all conference players in total points (43) and goals (18). Kaszuba returns to the All A-10 First Team for the first time since 1998 and is joined by teammate Eric Nelson. Three Flyers made the All A-10 Second Team as sophomore Sunday Isename, senior Chris Harder, and freshman Denny Clanton made the list of names. For Clanton, he also earned a spot on the A-10 All-Rookie Team and was just one of two freshmen in the entire conference to be named 1st or 2nd Team All A-10.

The big hoss…

Head Coach Dave Schureck earned Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year after guiding the Flyers to a 14-3-1 record and A-10 regular season title in his first year as a head coach. Schureck joins UD womens Head Coach Mike Tucker into the elite group of skippers who have been named Coach of the Year. Tucker earned the Ohio Coach of the Year honor in 1999.

WOMENS SOCCER

Incoming!…

UDPride has learned that the UD womens soccer staff has received a verbal commitment for the 2001 season. While the university or the coaches cannot and will not comment on the news, we’re confident in who it is and believe her to be one of the most talented players anywhere in the country. UDPride is among the media outlets that will receive confirmation either by the recruit or from a press release issued by the high school and we will bring you the confirming news as we get it. The coaching staff has indicated in the past that recruiting is going well and more commitments are expected soon. We will keep our eyes peeled.Going for the gusto…
The Dayton Flyers are going for their second straight Atlantic-10 Tournament title and third title appearance in as many years. Dayton beat Xavier 2-1 last year on a Megan McKnight shot with five seconds remaining, while Xavier beat the Flyers in penalty kicks in 1998 after tying the game in regulation with six seconds left. Dayton has the #1 seed in this year’s tournament and will face #4 URI in one semifinal, while #2 Xavier faces #3 UMass in the other. The Flyers are the only team among the four who have beaten the other three (XU 4-0, URI 1-0, UM 2-1).

More NSCAA futility…

Not only has the NSCAA passed a blind eye on the mens team in the national rankings, the NSCAA is treating the Flyer womens team just as cold – maybe worse. Despite winning the A-10 title and finishing the season at 15-4 (including eight straight wins), Dayton is not even ranked in the Top-10 of the NSCAA Great Lakes Region The Flyers trail such mediocre teams as Iowa (11-7), recent losers to a 6-13-1 Air Force squad – a team the Flyers whipped 3-0 earlier in the year. While the NSCAA has been busy protecting the old guard, Head Coach Mike Tucker’s team has been getting more respect in other polls. Dayton is ranked #7 in the Great Lakes Region by SoccerBuzz, and is #32 nationally in the SoccerTimes.com poll. In the American Soccer Writers (ASW) Poll, the Flyers are #30 in the nation. In the SIS Power Ratings, a computer ranking similar to the Sagarin, Dayton is #50 as of Oct. 24 – a ranking that does not take into account the Va Tech and GW victories.

Weisenfeld gets homered…

Goalkeeper Stephanie Weisenfeld was mysteriously left off the All-Atlantic 10 1st and 2nd teams last year, but the A-10 coaches showed their ignorance once again – and this time it’s downright blasphemous. Despite leading all A-10 goalkeepers in save percentage, overall goals-against-average, and wins, Weisenfeld was not among the players selected for the 2000 A-10 1st or 2nd teams. While those who’ve followed A-10 soccer over the last two seasons assumed she was a shoo-in for the 1st team and even a strong candidate for A-10 Defensive Player of the Year, the A-10 coaches have once again embarrassed themselves. Maybe it should come as no surprise however. Were opposing coaches as good at judging talent as UD Head Coach Mike Tucker, they might win a few more games instead of getting pasted by the Flyers every year. Their postseason voting record merely underlines the fact that they don’t know as much about soccer as they think. To add insult to injury, they voted goalkeeper Julie Podhrasky (UMass) A-10 Defensive Player of the Year and to the A-10 First Team even though she finished a mediocre sixth out of 11 goalies in overall goalkeeping. Karen Cunningham (SBU) finished fourth among A-10 goalkeepers but made the A-10 2nd Team. Whatever credibility the conference had as a judge of talent is now seriously in question for the second year in a row.

Better late than never…

Last year, Missy Gregg had the A-10 Player of the Year award stolen from her by UMass forward Emma Kurowski. While Kurowski was a decent player, she was no better than the 5th or 6th best player in the conference, yet that didn’t stop conference coaches from voting her the top dog. While the East Coast bias still lingers this year and the awards have changed names, she did pick up Atlantic-10 Offensive Player of the Year for the 2000 season. The Hermann Trophy Finalist led all scorers with 47pts and over the last two seasons is tied with Penn State All-American Christie Welsh with the most points scored during that span. Last season, Gregg was a Third Team NSCAA All-American while Kurowski failed to make 1st Team All Region despite winning the A-10 POY.

Three other Flyers named…

While the voting injustices were widespread, senior Ingrid Zielke and junior Megan McKnight impressed enough coaches to earn 2nd Team All A-10 honors. Freshman Beth McHugh, a HS forward who played all year in the Dayton backfield, was the only Flyer to crack the A-10 All Rookie Team.

Road warriors…

UDPride received a thumbs up from the A-10 Conference and will be part of the media contingent in Cincinnati covering all the soccer action. We’ll have complete game recaps and photos from Corcoran Field on the campus of Xavier University for all the Flyer action. Friday’s semifinal games against Rhode Island is scheduled for a 5:30pm kickoff while the nightcap between Xavier and UMass is slated for 8pm.

TELEVISION

On the boob toob…

The Altantic-10 mens and womens soccer championship games will be televised locally on Fox Sports Ohio through an agreement with the Atlantic-10 Network. The womens final in Cincinnati, OH, is schedule for 12pm on Sunday while the mens final in Kingston, RI, is slated for a 2pm kickoff.