Dayton Flyers celebrate A-10 title with ice cream

Volleyball team wins third straight championship

The Dayton Flyers celebrated an Atlantic 10 championship Sunday in style.

“We screamed a lot, and then we got ice cream,” junior outside hitter Jessica Sloan said.

On their way back from St. Louis, after they beat the Saint Louis Billikens 3-2 in the championship match, the Flyers stopped in Effingham, Ill., for a celebratory desert. Cold Stone Creamery was closed, so they went to Culver’s.

This was as much a reward for an earlier promise made by coach Tim Horsmon as it was a reward for winning their 19th straight match and earning their 12th NCAA tournament berth since 2003 and third in a row.

“We have this thing if we get on a seven-point run during a match against a top-100 RPI team, we get rewarded ice cream,” Sloan said. “He has a tendency to not reward us with ice cream in a timely manner, so we ended up getting it on the ride back and also to celebrate the win.”

The Flyers (30-1) now get a week break before learning their NCAA tournament opponent at 9 p.m. Sunday. ESPNU will televise the selection show.

Dayton, even though it leads the nation in victories and winning percentage, fell two spots to No. 24 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll this week. It ranks 27th in the RPI. It doesn’t know where it might end up in the tournament but plans to make the most of this week.

“We are going to be practicing so freaking hard,” Sloan said. “There’s a tendency after teams win their conference tournament to get complacent once they realize they made it to the NCAA, so we want to make sure we’re practicing as hard as we have been.”

No. 5 seed Virginia Commonwealth and No. 3 seed Saint Louis prepared the No. 1 seed Flyers for the next round by giving them their toughest tests since September. Dayton beat the Rams 25-12, 20-25, 22-25, 25-17 and 15-10 in the semifinals Saturday night. On Sunday, Dayton beat the Billikens 21-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-20 and 15-9.

The final set was tense. Dayton didn’t know if it would make the NCAA tournament as an at-large team. It needed the automatic berth.

“We knew they were a very good team,” sophomore defensive specialist Margo Wolf said, “but we didn’t expect them to play like that. In the past, when we played them, I think we won in three sets the majority of times. We didn’t expect it to go to five.”

The Flyers beat the Billikens 3-0 twice in the regular season and beat them twice by 3-1 scores last season. Saint Louis sought its first A-10 tournament title since 2008.

With the match on the line, Horsmon told the Flyers, “Be on empty at the end of this game. Give it all you’ve got.”

Junior middle blocker Amber Erhahon, who was named most outstanding player of the tournament, said it was stressful and fun at the same time.

“Our whole team’s very competitive,” she said. “I guess we figured out our tournament was on the line and it could cost us going to the NCAA tournament. We just amped it up.”

About the Author