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UD's sports has seen strong fall

By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer 12:18 AM Thursday, November 19, 2009

DAYTON — Kelly Sheffield, the University of Dayton women’s volleyball coach, joked that he had a few suggestions for changes to his office recently.

“I share an office suite with both soccer programs,” Sheffield said. “They had to do some renovation on the door, and I kid (the coaches) it’s so they can fit their heads through there with the years they’ve been having.”

It has, indeed, been a strong fall for the UD athletics department and inside the halls of the Frericks Center, where coaches have their offices. But it’s not over yet.

Sheffield was right about the soccer teams, whose seasons are completed. The women finished 16-1-6 with its only loss in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The men closed their season 14-5-1 and lost the championship game of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament last weekend.

Between soccer, football (8-2) and volleyball (26-3), the Flyers have gone a combined 64-11-7 in those sports.

“I know this athletic department has a rich tradition,” Sheffield said, “but man, some people had to rewrite some history books this year.”

Now there’s another big weekend coming, as the calendar bleeds into the winter sports and two fall championships are on the line.

• The volleyball team will host the A-10 tournament Friday, Nov. 20, through Sunday at the Frericks Center. Dayton, the  No. 1 seed, will play its first match at 5 p.m. Saturday.

• The football team will host Marist at 1 p.m. Saturday with the possibility of winning the Pioneer Football League championship. If the Flyers beat Marist and Drake beats Butler, UD will host the Northeast Conference champion in the Gridiron Classic on Dec. 5.

• The men’s basketball team will play three games in the next four days in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, including an 11:30 a.m. matchup against Georgia Tech today.

• The women’s basketball team, after going 1-1 against two ranked opponents, including a win against No. 10 Michigan State to open the season, will play three games in three days in this weekend’s BTI Classic in West Lafayette, Ind.

Sheffield said fan support, including what the volleyball team receives, is a big reason for the success across all sports.

“There’s nobody in the A-10 that comes close to having he fan support that we’ve gotten,” Sheffield said.

“Frericks is one of the best home environments around. The students are on the floor, and they’re nuts. They’ve been supporting us, and now we have the community getting behind us.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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