Dayton gets chance to host A-10 women’s soccer tournament after top seed is upset

“I think we all really wanted to be at home,” Dayton defender Mackenzie Lutz said Wednesday, “so it got everyone really pumped up and excited.”

“We had a meeting actually scheduled about five minutes after that game ended,” coach Eric Golz said, “So it was a little bit of a party-type atmosphere and also coincided with the men winning in double overtime. So it was it was a good night to be a Flyer.”

Dayton, the No. 2 seed, capitalized on VCU’s loss by beating No. 7 seed Richmond 3-1 at Baujan Field on Sunday thanks to goals by Marlee Taylor, Laney Huber and Itala Gemelli. That victory means Dayton gets to stay at home this weekend.

The semifinals at Baujan Field start Friday with a matchup between No. 4 Massachusetts (10-5-4) and No. 8 Saint Joseph’s (6-11-2) at 1 p.m. Dayton (12-5-2) will play No. 3 seed Saint Louis (10-8-1) at 4 p.m. The championship game will take place at noon Sunday. All the games will air on ESPN+.

The Flyers seek their 11th tournament championship and first since 2016. Saint Louis, the No. 3 seed, has won the last three tournament titles and five in its history. Massachusetts won four tournament titles from 1993-97. Saint Joseph’s has never won the tournament.

For Dayton to win the tournament and the automatic NCAA berth, it will have to beat a team it has lost to five times in 2021. Saint Louis beat Dayton 3-2 in double overtime on March 18 in Dayton. The teams then played three games in St. Louis in the spring season. The Billikens won 3-1 on April 8, 2-1 on April 11 and then 3-0 in the semifinals of the A-10 tournament on April 15. Saint Louis won the only matchup in the fall season 1-0 in St. Louis on Sept. 19.

“We’re really excited to be playing SLU,” Lutz said. “No better time than now. I think we’ve grown since last time we played them. We’re a way better team now. We’ve just been preparing all week and getting ready for that big game.”

Dayton is 9-1 since losing to Saint Louis and has won five games in a row. The Billikens won the regular-season game with a penalty kick in the 80th minute. Each team possessed the ball for 50 percent of the game.

“We know that set pieces are critical for them,” Golz said. “They score a lot of goals off of set pieces. So I think we need to do a good job of denying them some of those opportunities and then defending them when they do earn them. There’s a lot of familiarity, but each time we play, tweaks are made by both teams. So it’s not necessarily the same match every time. Every time there’s new wrinkles.”

Saint Louis won the last two tournaments on its home field but won the championship in 2018 at Baujan Field. Dayton won its last championship five years ago at Rhode Island.

“Of course, there’s some pressure with this being at home,” midfielder Jessica Sheldon said, “and there’s going to be a large crowd, but we’ve said it’s a privilege to have pressure. We’re just excited to go out and do our thing.”

Men’s soccer: The Flyers earned the last spot in the A-10 men’s tournament with a 4-3 overtime victory Saturday against Duquesne. Michael Adedokun scored the game-winning goal in overtime.

“It was a great game,” Dayton coach Dennis Currier said on DaytonFlyers.com. “A lot of credit to Duquesne. They have got a pretty good offense. It was just one of those games where it had almost everything involved in it in terms of soccer, emotions, and coming back from being down 2-0. We got ahead, then lost the lead and they drew it up. Then getting the game-winner in overtime, it pretty much had everything involved.”

As the No. 8 seed, Dayton (6-8-3) will play No. 1 seed Saint Louis (12-0-3) at 8 p.m. Saturday on the road in the quarterfinals. Dayton lost 2-0 at Saint Louis on Oct. 16. It finished 8-0 in A-10 play, becoming the first team since 1993 to finish league play with no losses or ties. It is one of two Division I teams without a loss this season.