DAYTON, Ohio— Dayton used a strong offensive performance to earn a spot in the Atlantic 10 Volleyball Championship Final, defeating fifth-seeded VCU 3-1 Saturday afternoon at the Frericks Center. The top-seeded Flyers will play in their 11th A-10 final in the last 12 years.
UD (27-5) will face the winner of No. 2 George Washington and No. 3 Saint Louis, which were playing in the second semifinal Saturday evening.
Dayton hit .288 as a team and was led by A-10 Player of the Year Alaina Turner with 17 kills. Jill Loiars also had 15 kills and hit .393. A-10 All-Rookie selection Jane Emmenecker recorded 42 assists.
VCU (17-13) used a nearly perfect offensive attack in set one, committing just one error to hit .485 on 33 attempts and 17 kills. The Rams slowly built a lead that got as high as eight at 23-15 on a kill by Janelle Sykes. Dayton tried to rally late and scored four straight points, thanks to three consecutive kills from Turner. But All-Rookie selection Jessica Young ended the rally with a kill that gave VCU the set one win.
UD dominated set two, scoring 10 of the first 13 points and hitting .520 as a team, including nine kills and a .727 hitting percentage from Turner. The Flyers held the lead throughout the set to even the match.
Dayton used an 8-0 run in set three to break a 15-all tie and take a big lead late in the game. The run included a trio of kills from Loiars and a series of blocks that closed out the win for the Flyers.
The final set was tightly contested the entire match – neither team held more than a two-point advantage. Late in the match, UD’s Loiars and Isolde Hannan traded kills with VCU’s Kalah Jones and Sykes, tying the match at 23. However Dayton scored the final two points on a kill by Jenna Jendryk and a VCU attack error, securing a spot in the A-10 championship final.
VCU had three players with double-digit kills, led by Jones with 16. Young and Sykes each had 10 kills. Cecilia Aragao recorded 33 assists. Rebekah Strange led the Rams defensively with 14 digs.
Rachel Jones had 13 digs and A-10 libero of the Year Janna Krafka tallied 11 digs on the defensive end for Dayton. All-Rookie pick Amber Erhahon also had a match-high seven blocks.