Oct. 26, 2006

Box Score

CINCINNATI - Dayton saw its 21-match Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season winning streak come to an end with a 2-3 loss at Xavier (24-30, 30-32, 30-23, 30-27, 9-15) on Thursday evening at Cintas Center. The Flyers (19-6, 9-1 A-10) remain atop the A-10 West Division standings despite their first loss in conference play this season.

Despite holding a slim .260 to .250 lead in hitting during the match, UD surrendered 86 kills to XU while recording just 77 of its own. Four Flyers reached double figures in kills led by senior Faye Barhorst with 19. The middle blocker hit at a .389 clip and added seven blocks while becoming Dayton's all-time leader in career kills with 1,681.

Junior Jamie-Lee Richards followed with 18 kills with three blocks for the Flyers. Sophomore Nicole Bateman added her third straight double-double with 14 kills and 13 digs while junior Robynne Green finished with 11 kills and eight blocks of her own.

Defensively, UD had 16.0 blocks to XU's 5.0 and the Flyer back row was bolstered by a team-high 31 digs from Adrienne Green. Sophomore setter Erin Schroeder added 19 digs and 57 assists while sophomore Mandy Robbe contributed 11 digs for the visitors.

Dayton dropped the first game by a count of 24-30, despite hitting .319 as a team. The homestanding Musketeers hit at a .391 clip with six kills each from the duo of Jill Quayle and Danielle Skrajewski. After the teams played even to a score of 19-all before a 5-1 XU run put the home team ahead 24-20. Kills by Astyn Bjorklund, Quayle and Hillary Otte fueled the rally, which put Xavier ahead for good en route to a 1-0 lead in the match.

UD jumped out to a 4-1 lead in game two to force an XU timeout. From there, the momentum evened and the team traded the lead until the score reached 13-all. The Flyers responded with a 4-0 run beginning with a kill from the middle of the back row by Chelsy Christoff. After a Musketeer error, Barhorst recorded a solo block in the middle of the floor followed by another Xavier error for a 17-13 UD advantage. Xavier worked back into the game and evened the score at 24-all. Then with the score knotted at 27-27, Xavier used a kill by Jenn Welsh and a UD error to force its first game point at 29-27. A pair of kills by Bethany Akherielm gave Dayton new life at 29-all, but Danielle Skrajewski ripped a kill through the middle of the Flyer block for another XU game point at 30-29. Robynne Green stopped the Musketeer charge with a solo block in the middle of the floor. However, a UD service error and a kill by Jill Quayle gave XU a 2-0 lead in the match with a 32-30 victory in game two.

The Flyers rebounded in game three to out hit the Musketeers .312 to .214 en route to a 30-23 UD victory. Jamie-Lee Richards ripped five kills in the game while Faye Barhorst added four for Dayton, which led from the midpoint on. UD also recorded three blocks with Robynne Green and Bethany Akerhielm combining for three assists each. Adrienne Green tallied eight digs as the Flyer defense held the big three Musketeers of Skrajewski, Otte and Quayle to seven kills combined in the third game.

In game four the teams traded points to start before the Flyers used a 4-0 run to build a 10-6 advantage. From there, UD led by as many as six and held a 26-20 lead before an XU run put the home team within a pair at 28-26. However, Dayton closed out the game with kills by Robynne Green and Jamie-Lee Richards to even the score at 2-2 in the match. UD had five blocks in the fourth game while Adrienne Green tallied six digs as the Flyer defense held the Musketeers to a .208 hitting percentage. Faye Barhorst led the Dayton offense with six kills in the fourth game while Nicole Bateman and Jamie-Lee Richards had four each.

After playing to a 4-4 start in the fifth and deciding game, Xavier used a 3-0 run sparked by a pair of kills by Astyn Bjorklund to build a 7-4 advantage. From there, the Musketeers dominated while spreading the lead to six at 11-5 en route to a 15-9 game-five win.

Dayton remains on the road in Atlantic 10 West Division action on Sunday with a 1 p.m. ET match at Rhode Island.