The nationally ranked University of Dayton volleyball team kicked off their season this weekend with a three-match sweep in the Dayton Flyer Classic.

Entering the season ranked as the nation's No. 21 team, the Flyers began with a dominating three-set sweep over Pittsburgh Friday, Aug. 27, winning 25-15, 25-13 and 25-10.

After a second-place finish in the Big East last season, Pitt was the preseason No. 5 team in their conference. The UD defense shut down the Big East competition, though, including All-Big East performer Amy Town who was held to just six kills. All but one Pitt player had a negative hitting percentage.

For Dayton, Jessica Yanz had 32 assists in her debut, more than three times as many as any Panther player, while Amanda Cowdrey added 13 kills to go along Rachel Krabacher's eight. Krabacher also added 14 digs on the defensive end while Paige Vargas had 11.

After a quick turnaround, UD was back in action on Saturday, Aug. 28, against Arizona State. The Pacific 10 Conference school was again no match as the Flyers took the match three sets to one.

Yanz set up the offense well again with 42 assists, aided by another 11 kills for Cowdrey and nine for Becky Novacek. Vargas added 17 more digs to her count, while Cowdrey and Krabacher had 12 and 10, respectively.

"Obviously the first match of the season is a challenge because you're getting started," head coach Kelly Sheffield said. "Second match we got really, really pushed and challenged against Arizona State, and I thought we responded really well. They hit us; we hit them back."

Rounding out the tournament, UD squared off against Virginia Commonwealth University in their second game of a Saturday doubleheader.

It would be the same story for the Flyers, as they rolled to victory over the Rams with a 25-10, 25-8 and 25-15 performance.

"The fact that we're playing a third match in 24 hours, we won't have to do that all year long," Sheffield said. "I was really interested to see how fast we could move on, and that's really what this tournament was about, moving on to that next match quickly, and I thought we did a really good job of that."

Yanz once again did her job setting up the offense with 22 assists, and fellow transfer Samantha Selsky also added three digs and three assists.

Overall over the weekend, the Flyers defense had 32.5 blocks and 150 digs, and only gave up 20 points twice in 10 sets.

"We still have a lot of work to do defensively, but we're getting better," Sheffield said. "We're a lot better than what we were when we started the preseason."

The Flyers grueling schedule will continue this month with three straight weekend tournaments that will include games against Nebraska, Illinois and Minnesota, two top-10 preseason teams, and Northern Iowa, ranked just a few spots behind UD.

"The schedule's tough," Sheffield said. "This team likes challenges, so I think next weekend we'll be ready."

Two other Flyer opponents during the stretch, Notre Dame and Santa Clara, are also receiving votes in the poll. However, don't expect the Flyers to be intimidated.

"We're really deep," Sheffield said. "No matter who we put in there, our production doesn't drop. Elite teams have that."