Flyers vs. Temple in A-10 Volleyball Semis
November 21, 2009
Posted November 21, 2009
Posted By Jacob Rosen
udjrosen@gmail.com
The Dayton Flyers advanced to the championship of the Atlantic-10 conference tournament Saturday evening with a 16-25, 25-23, 25-14 and 25-16 victory against the visiting Temple Owls. With the four-set victory, top-seeded UD improved to 27-3 on the season and it was their third of the year against the #4 Owls. The winner of tonight's later contest between #2 St. Louis and #3 Xavier will take on the Flyers at 4:00 pm Sunday evening. That championship will be televised live on CBS College Sports TV as the Dayton volleyball squad looks for their fifth A-10 crown in seven years.
First Set: Temple 25-16 = Disappointing start overall for the Flyers, even though they led early 5-1 and were leading as the score entered double-digits. Unfortunately, however, the Owls led by Zhang would counter by collecting 15 of the final 19 points en route to the victory. UD showed little power offensively against the might of Temple.
Temple Star: Yun Yi Zhang, 10 kills, .421 attack pct
Dayton Star: Becky Novacek, 4 kills, .429 attack pct
The Diff: In a common theme for the evening, the Flyers will only go so far as redshirt freshman Rachel Krabacher takes them in the conference. She collected only two kills against six errors for a poor -.286 attack percentage in this set. Overall, the Owls shot .353 against .081 for Dayton. Twelve combined attack and block errors for UD while Temple had only three.
Second Set: Dayton 25-23 = The Flyers returned the favor in the second set heading into the half time break, despite coming slow out of the gates. Trailing 2-5, UD tied it back it where it remained for the most part until the score reached 20 points plus. Fletemier and Novacek were enough as they over-powered the Owls by the end to tie it all up at one set a piece.
Temple Star: Yun Yi Zhang, 8 kills, .438 attack pct
Dayton Star(s): Becky Novacek and Lindsay Fletemier each had 6 kills and a .667 attack pct
The Diff: Impressive comeback as UD shot a much better .366 in the second set while Temple again shot above .300. The difference then was the consistency near the net for the Flyers, collecting two team blocks against zero block errors. Temple had no blocks in the set.
Third Set: Dayton 25-14 = With momentum clearly on their side following the their victory, the Flyers looked flat at the beginning of a set again. It was only 3-4, but then Dayton reeled off a streak of eight straight before leading 17-7. It was over from there as Temple had serious issues handling a more consistent attack and system from the Flyers. This one looks all but over now at the Frericks Center.
Temple Star: Jackie Morrison, 1 kill and 7 assists
Dayton Star: Rachel Krabacher, 8 kills, .667 attack pct
The Diff: This team will clearly go as far as Rachel Krabacher allows them. Settling down, she had 12 total attacks again in this set, but converted on eight with zero errors. She only had four kills against seven attack errors in the first two sets. Temple shot just .125 in the match with only eight kills as Zhang herself shot zero percent on 20 attacks.
Fourth Set: Dayton 25-16 = Both teams struggled at the beginning of the set with their accurate attacking, but the Flyers again took control after an early tie. The score was 4-all but the home team responded and controlled lead around five to nine points the rest of the way. For the third straight set, Temple shot a worse percentage than the previous as Dayton was organized enough offensively to finish the in the semifinals.
Temple Star: Ariel Pierre, 7 digs for a match-leading 23 total
Dayton Star: Lindsay Fletemier, 3 kills and 1 solo block at the net
The Diff: The only way to beat Temple is to first control Yun Yi Zhang and secondly, make sure they make more mistakes than you do. That is exactly the recipe UD used after Zhang recorded 18 kills with a .429 attack percentage through two sets. In the final two sets, Zhang had 11 kills and 5 errors for a human-like .171 attack percentage.
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