Dayton No. 1 seed once again in A-10 volleyball tournament

Flyers will start play in semifinals Saturday
The Dayton Flyers celebrate after winning the Atlantic 10 Conference volleyball tournament championship on Saturday, April 3, 2021, at the Frericks Center. Photo by Erik Schelkun

Credit: Erik Schelkun/Elsestar Images

Credit: Erik Schelkun/Elsestar Images

The Dayton Flyers celebrate after winning the Atlantic 10 Conference volleyball tournament championship on Saturday, April 3, 2021, at the Frericks Center. Photo by Erik Schelkun

The Dayton Flyers will try to win their second Atlantic 10 Conference volleyball tournament championship in the calendar year this weekend.

Dayton claimed the title in the spring season, which was moved from the fall of 2020 because of the pandemic, by beating Fordham and Virginia Commonwealth in straight sets at the Frericks Center. It will once again be the No. 1 seed in the fall tournament, which begins Friday at Duquesne’s UMPC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh.

Dayton (23-5 overall) finished 16-0 in the regular season, going undefeated in league play for the fifth time. It has not lost an A-10 match since the final game of the 2019 regular season when VCU beat it 3-2 in Dayton. It has won six of the last seven A-10 tournaments.

Dayton takes a 17-match winning streak into the A-10 tournament. It received a first-round bye and will play No. 4 seed Davidson (14-12, 10-6) or No. 5 Duquesne (12-15, 7-9) in the semifinal at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. No. 2 VCU (18-11, 13-3) will play No. 3 Saint Louis (18-11, 11-5) or No. 6 Fordham (8-20, 5-11) in the other semifinal at 4 p.m.

The championship match will take place at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The winner earns a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

All the A-10 tournament matches will air on ESPN+.

Recruiting news: Dayton announced the signing of five 2022 recruits on Wednesday: Karissa Kaminski (Howards Grove, Wis./Howards Grove); Kaitlyn McNeel (Richmond, Va./Godwin); Mia Otten (Bartlesville, Okla./Bartlesville); Liana Sarkissian (Cos Cob, Conn./Greenwich); and Emily Young (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart).

“This class is going to be a great complimentary piece to our returners and we believe they will fill in some gaps that we needed to address moving forward to create a highly competitive team for the next few years,” Horsmon said in a press release. “We love the character of these individuals and think they will continue our tradition and legacy of highly competitive teams while representing UD at a very high level. They are a great fit to our Dayton Flyer family.”

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