“We’ve been fortunate enough to be in a really cool place and to recruit good volleyball players,” coach Tim Horsmon said Tuesday, “and I think it starts with the expectation of the volleyball program. (UD does) a lot to help us and move us forward with that. I don’t know that it’s one thing. I think it’s a lot of those pieces put together and then a persistence and desire to work hard enough to stay in that spot.”
Dayton (23-6 overall) now moves on to the A-10 tournament at the Siegel Center in Richmond, Va. No. 1 seed Dayton will play No. 4 Virginia Commonwealth (14-12) or No. 5 George Mason (17-12) in the semifinals at noon Saturday.
Dayton beat VCU twice at the Frericks Center earlier this month, but it needed five sets each time. Only two other A-10 teams, Davidson and George Washington, took Dayton to a fifth set.
If the top seeds advance, Dayton would play No. 2 Loyola Chicago in the championship game at noon Sunday. The Flyers seek their 17th A-10 tournament title. Unlike last season, Dayton likely needs to win the A-10 tournament to earn a NCAA tournament berth because it didn’t do enough in non-conference play to build an at-large resume.
Loyola beat Dayton 3-0 in the championship game in 2024 and also won the event in 2022.
Horsmon said the team hasn’t talked much about the disappointment of the loss in the final last season.
“We’re just trying to stay in the moment,“ he said. ”But also so many of those kids weren’t even on the floor. There are only a couple players from last year’s team that are still on this team playing, so I think it’s a different experience for them."
One of Dayton’s newcomers, junior outside hitter Kamryn Hunt, a transfer from Ohio, won the A-10 Player of the Year award on Thursday. She averaged 6.67 kills per set in two victories against Rhode Island. She ranks second in the A-10 with 4.0 kills per set.
“She’s really stabilized our offense,” Horsmon said. “I think she hit about .180 last year at Ohio, and she’s probably 100 points higher now. She’s just been a go-to player for us. I’m not sure where we’d be here without her.”
Other Flyers honored in the A-10 awards were:
• Karissa Kaminski was named Libero of the Year.
• Viktoria Wahlgren won the Setter of the Year award.
• Horsmon won the coach of the year award for the ninth time in his 17 seasons.
• Hunt, Wahlgren and Liana Sarkissian made the A-10 first team and the all-academic team.
• Karissa Kaminski made the second team.
• Redshirt freshmen Corrie Anderson and Abigail Cresse made the all-rookie team.
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