Nov. 17, 2007

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CHARLOTTE - Top-seeded Dayton earned its fifth straight appearance in the Atlantic 10 Volleyball Championship Match with a 3-1 (30-24, 30-26, 27-30, 30-14) victory over fourth-seeded Temple in the A-10 Semifinals on Saturday at Halton Arena.

The Flyers (29-1) will take the best record in the nation into Sunday's Championship Match against Xavier thanks to four Flyers with 10 kills or more. Dayton will be playing for an automatic berth into the their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in the past five years.

UD hit .247 as a team to TU's .152 on the strength of 51 assists, 18 digs and two service aces by 2007 A-10 Second Team selection Erin Schroeder.

A-10 First Teamer Jamie-Lee Richards led all players with 17 kills while hitting .353 to go along with three blocks, five digs and a service ace.

Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year Lindsay Fletemier hit .323 to put up 15 kills and three blocks. She was followed by A-10 First Team selection Bethany Akerhielm with 13 kills and a .458 hitting percentage as well as six blocks.

Junior Kortney Norris added 10 kills a two service aces for Dayton, which is now 8-1 all-time in A-10 Tournament play under the direction of Tim Horsmon.

Senior libero Adrienne Green finished with a match-best 23 digs to help the Flyers record a 71-63 advantage in digs and take a 72-45 lead in kills.

After feeling its way through the first few points of the match, Kortney Norris ripped a kill off of the hands of the Temple defense to put the Flyers ahead for good at 7-6. Then with the Flyers ahead 13-10, Dayton went on an 8-3 run behind a pair of kills from Richards and one each by Akerhielm, Marten, Fletemier to take a 21-13 en route to a 30-24 victory.

The Flyers out hit the Owls .225 to .030 behind six kills on nine swings with no errors by Jamie-Lee Richards. Lindsay Fletemier followed with five kills of her own while adding two blocks. Junior Bethany Akerhielm and freshman Yvonne Marten each had two kills and two blocks to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead in the match.

The second game was much closer as Dayton started by building a 9-5 lead early on, but Temple came back to take the lead late 21-20 on an UD attack error. After a Flyer timeout, Jamie-Lee Richards pulled the top seed back on top with a pair of kills sandwiched around a Temple error to force a TU timeout with the Flyers ahead 23-21. Following the break, Erin Schroeder ripped a service ace down the middle of the court followed by a kill from the left side by Kortney Norris to take a 25-21 lead which held up for a 30-26 game two win.

Kortney Norris and Jamie-Lee Richards tallied four kills apiece while Erin Schroeder dished out 12 assists to help the Flyers out hit the Owls again .235 to. 174. Schroeder added a pair of service aces while Dayton had just two blocks to go along with eight digs from Adrienne Green to put UD on top two games to zero.

Temple came out with a more focused effort in game two and led by as many at seven at one point before Dayton came back on a 10-3 run to knot the score at 24-24 on a kill by Bethany Akerhielm. The Flyers went ahead on a service ace by Adrienne Green and another tip to back corner by Akerhielm, but TU would rally to tie the score again at 26-26. From there Patricia Vernon took over for the Owls with a pair of kills to close out a 30-27 win that extended the match to a fourth game.

Dayton took over again in game four as Bethany Akerhielm tallied five kills and the Flyers picked up four service aces in a 30-14 victory. UD out hit TU .364 to .000 on the strength of 13 assists from Erin Schroeder. The Flyers were in control from the start on a service ace by Jamie-Lee Richards and a kill by Robynne Green and rode the momentum to their fifth straight appearance in the A-10 Championship Match.