April 4, 2006

PALOS COURTS, Ill. - Dayton placed third in a challenging field of 11 teams on Saturday at the Chicago Spring Challenge held at Palos Courts, just outside Chicago. The Flyers look to continue their strong play this Spring with a tournament at Cincinnati on Saturday.

UD won three of the five matches at Palos Courts outright and held an 8-4 record in games played. The mark put the Flyers just behind Big Ten powers Minnesota (11-1) and Purdue (10-2), which are both on their 2006 Spring schedule. Iowa State (7-5) placed fourth behind Dayton followed by the group of New Mexico, Iowa, Illinois State and Bradley (all 5-7).

"Overall I was pleased with our performance in Chicago," UD Head Coach Tim Horsmon said. "Our main focus now is having each player continue to show improvement in their individual games, which will make us better as a team."

The Flyers went 5-1 in the morning session with a 3-0 sweep of Iowa and a 2-1 victory over Illinois State. In the afternoon session, Dayton played even with Bradley, 1-1, before beating Illinois-Chicago, 2-0, and falling to Purdue, 0-2.

Erin Schroeder and Chauntay Mickens continued their strong play this Spring for UD.

"Erin had a good day setting for us and made good decisions," Horsmon said. "Chauntay was solid and playing better every day."

Bethany Akerhielm performed well for the second straight weekend while moving from middle blocker to right side.

"Bethany has been getting better offensively and blocking," Horsmon said. "She is now involved with our serve receive while playing all six rotations."

Akrerhielm made the move from middle blocker to right side as an attempt to fill in this Spring for Kortney Norris who is sitting out following shoulder surgery.

"Her (Bethany) skill sets fit being a right side better than a middle," Horsmon said. "She has developed into one of our best overall players this Spring."

UD now gets ready for its third Spring Tournament this Saturday at it faces Marshall, Kent State, Duke and Cincinnati at UC.