In a battle of teams fighting for the top of the standings in the A10 race, the Dayton Flyers protected the home turf for a 2-1 victory over rival Richmond on Friday night before 779 fans at Baujan Field. Dayton remains perfect in the conference at 8-0 (15-1-0), while Richmond falls to 5-3 (7-6-1). The win assures the Flyers of their seventh A10 season title in a row with three conference matches to play. Rhode Island lost to LaSalle 1-0 Friday night, giving Dayton a three-game lead over the Spiders — currently in second place. With victories already in the bag over UR, URI, and fourth place Xavier, UD can finish no worse than a 1st place with Richmond but owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with tonight’s win, giving Coach Mike Tucker’s squad the top seed in the A-10 tournament.

Dayton got off to a strong start against Richmond, a program that’s been up and down in 2004 but has played exceedingly tough on a number of occasions, including a victory over nationally-ranked Tennessee. The Vols remain the only team to pin a blemish on #1 North Carolina’s record — a 1-1 tie earlier in the year. Richmond’s calling card has been good defense, having given up no more than two goals in any match all season to go along with six shutouts. On the other hand, their offense has struggled even more so than UD’s, netting just over a goal a game. If the Flyers could put 2-3 goals on them, the chances were high for a 15th victory in a row. In the first minutes of the match, things were looking very good and it was obvious the home team had the better skills.

Richmond lost a number of first half 50/50 challenges, especially in the air. Dayton’s ability to win loose balls and take possession proved to be the storyline of the first 45 minutes. The Flyer offense moved the ball downfield and made things happen. Reba Sedlacek did her usual work up top, while midfielder Katie Lowstuter continued to roam free in the middle, allowing her to do damage with the ball at her feet. Lowstuter has been on a tear of late, and has 1st Team All-Conference honors awaiting, but she received help from others including D/MF Jen Simonetti who won balls in the air and found holes in the interior to carry the ball forward with pace.

A pair of great scoring chances came in succession, with the first requiring a brilliant point-blank save by Spider GK Kelly Kolker at the near post to block a rocketed Flyer header off a corner kick. Dayton had another quality chance when a shot deflected off a Richmond defender from 25yds out, but Kolker came up big once again by changing directions and making a save at shoulder level.

Richmond had trouble generating any tangible offense of their own, primarily because they lacked the possession to stay organized. Without a chance to connect the dots, UR tried their luck at long ball soccer and on a couple of occasions it worked. UD had to run down a few chances near the flags and dig balls out that could have proved troublesome. Ironically, it was Richmond who tallied the first score however when Annette Isham booted a ball from 35yds out on the right side that appeared to be a blind kick rather than a determined shot on goal. However, Flyer GK Stacy DeLuca misjudged the high blooper and it found the far corner of the net to put UD down 1-0.

Fortunately, the Flyers kept plugging away and never deviated from the game plan. Sedlacek tied the match at 1-1 in the 29th minute after a loose ball directly in front of the Spider goal mouth produced a mad scrum for possession. The Flyers pretty much rushed the ball for three yards and the touchdown after it was cleared off the line, deflected off the crossbar on a second opportunity, then finished off by Sedlacek on a header. Coach Tucker’s team was back in business again and their persistence — and patience — paid off.

The better of play for the remainder of the first half continued to be in UD’s favor. Dayton had the better scoring chances, the better possession, the better 50/50 challenges, and better tactics. The only things that kept the score tied were a couple top-notch saves by Richmond and a few other chances gone uncashed. Other than Richmond’s score, their only other shot on goal was from 25yds out that required a diving save by DeLuca.

The second half would decide things and the first team to score might have the upper hand and enough firepower defensively to pack it in for the 2-1 victory. At least that’s what UR might have drawn up. But Dayton continued to outplay them and generate the better scoring opportunities. The Flyers hit the post from 25yds out on a bender to the far right corner. Soon thereafter, Simonetti fed a corner kick in the box that was deflected to the feet of junior defender Alicija Bredlo. Bredlo pounced on it from 10yds out and the ball slipped through traffic for the 2-1 Dayton lead. The match was in UD’s back pocket and they played disciplined defense for the rest of the evening to salt the game away. The Flyers played hard all evening. It wasn’t the best performance of the year, but it was gutsy, especially late in the match to seal the big win as players worked hard to take away possible Spider scoring chances.

In the back line, Jacqueline Luehrs split time at left back with Leah Phelps. Freshman Courtney Sirmans made an appearance at right back and took goal kicks late in the match that reached midfield and alleviated any potential quick counters. Freshman Natalie Walters continues to get the starting assignment up top. She’s gotten considerably better since the first matches of the season and is now finding ways to make an impact. Fans also saw senior Tesia Kozlowski tee a few shots up from long-range after carrying possession forward with the dribble. That’s her bread and butter and hopefully we’ll see more of that as tournament play nears. Kozlowski along with Sedlacek led the team with six shots a piece. Freshman midfielder Kristen Persichini, carried off the field during the Rhode Island match last week after a nasty collision, was back in action and looked unaffected.

UD outshot Richmond 24-5 in the match including 16-2 in the first half. While UD didn’t finish as well as they should have, credit must be given to GK Kelly Kolker — erasing two sure Flyer scores on her own — certain goals against any other GK on any other night. Those things happen. What Dayton did do was take care of business in a match against perhaps their biggest conference rival. Along with Rhode Island, Richmond proves to be UD’s toughest foe in the A10 every year. The Spiders up-ended Dayton 1-0 last year at First Market Stadium but eventually lost to UD 3-0 in the A-10 championship. Coupled with URI’s loss to LaSalle, UD is the top dog in the A-10 for an unprecedented seventh straight season and eighth overall. It should come as no surprise because we tabbed the Flyers as the program to beat in our 2004 preview. Dayton can set another record of sorts on Sunday afternoon against George Washington when they try for a school-record 16th win in a row in the home finale. Right now, Dayton is playing for an undefeated conference season and chance to play their way into the NCAA tournament undefeated since the season opener. An undefeated A10 schedule would be the second for UD’s seniors. They swept the league as freshmen. A 16th victory in a row would break a record helped set by the same senior class from the same year.

Check the women’s soccer forum on the UDPride Message Board soon for video from tonight’s match.