Dayton rallies to beat Pepperdine in NCAA volleyball tournament

The Dayton Flyers won a first-round NCAA volleyball tournament match for the 10th time in 17 appearances Friday.

UD rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat Pepperdine 3-2 at Bohler Gym on the campus of Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. The match lasted two hours, 43 minutes.

No. 5 seed Dayton’s 26-28, 26-24, 20-25, 25-14, 15-11 victory means it will play No. 4 seed Washington State in the second round at 10 p.m. (EST) Saturday. Washington State beat Grand Canyon 25-12, 31-29, 25-17 in the second match Friday.

Dayton (32-2) ranks 19th and Washington State (25-7) is 10th in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll.

Dayton has never won a second-round match. If it beats Washington State, it would play No. 1 seed Pittsburgh, which is fourth in the AVCA poll, or No. 8 seed and 25th-ranked Southern California in the third round.

Against Pepperdine, Alyssa Miller led Dayton with 40 assists and had nine digs and four blocks. Gaby Arroyo had 22 digs. Lexie Almodovar had 19 kills and 17 digs. Karissa Kaminski had 17 digs and 10 assists.

Dayton extended its school-record winning streak to 27 matches.

The Match Point ✈️🏐#GoFlyers // @NCAAVolleyball pic.twitter.com/K4mNE9Eyvk
— Dayton Volleyball (@DaytonVB) December 2, 2023

FLYERS ARE SOARING TODAY ✈️

(5) @DaytonVB defeats Pepperdine to move on to round 2 tomorrow after a 5-set thriller‼️#NCAAWVB pic.twitter.com/aznvrBGZpJ
— NCAA Women's Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) December 2, 2023