Sep. 29, 2004

CINCINNATI - The University of Dayton volleyball team began its defense of last year's Atlantic 10 Championship with a 3-0 (31-29, 30-27, 30-24) win over Xavier in the A-10 opener for both schools at Cintas Center Wednesday night.

Senior Christy Utnage (Indianapolis, Ind.) and sophomore Faye Barhorst (Fort Loramie, Ohio) led the way for the Flyers as they each hit .333 on the night. Utnage had 17 kills to go along with 11 digs and two blocks while Barhorst, the current A-10 Player of the Week, added 15 kills and five blocks of her own. Junior Nicole Schott (Roscoe, Ill.) had 37 assists while leading the Dayton offense to .239 hitting percentage. Freshman libero Adrienne Green (Palatine, Ill.) provided a spark on defense with a career-high 19 digs to lead all players.

UD (9-5, 1-0 A-10) came out of the gate to tally a 13-4 advantage in game one against XU (6-8, 0-1 A-10) who was picked to win the 2004 A-10 Regular Season Championship in preseason voting by the conference's head coaches. The Musketeers would rally to eventually tighten the score at 16-all, but the Flyers withstood the pressure and out hit the Musketeers .229 to .167 to win game one, 31-29. Utnage and Barhorst each had five kills for Dayton while Adrienne Green had seven digs.

Game two began the same way the opening game ended as no team could gain more than a three point advantage until a two XU attack errors and a pair of kills from Barhorst gave the Flyers a 13-9 lead. Xavier rebound and take the lead 15-14, but could not build more than a two point advantage. With the score knotted at 25-all, Utnage took over. She finished the game with three kills in the final seven rallies and led the Flyers to a 30-27 win. The UD defense was stellar again holding XU to a .098 hitting percentage while Utnage had seven kills in 14 swings during game two for a team-best .429 hitting percentage.

Dayton withstood a solid effort from Xavier in game three as XU opened up to an 8-2 lead behind a strong defensive effort at the net. A kill by senior Shanna Pressler (Archbold, Ohio) would ignite a 7-1 run highlighted by four consecutive blocks from the Flyer defense. Barhorst, Schott and Utnage would each record solo blocks in the stretch while Barhorst and Schott would combine for another. UD would control the match for the rest of the way and close out the three game sweep of the Musketeers with a 30-24 win in game three.

Dayton returns to the newly remodeled Frericks Center this weekend to host A-10 rivals Fordham and Rhode Island. UD will take on Fordham Friday at 7 p.m. and Rhode Island Saturday at 4 p.m.