The Flyers go back on the road this week, playing Sunday at Illinois State in Normal, Ill., and Wednesday against the Florida Gators in Gainesville, Fla. Two more games follow in Florida on Dec. 20-21 against High Point and Clemson in the West Palm Beach Invitational. They don’t play another home game until Dec. 29 when Howard visits UD Arena.
Dayton senior Kyla Whitehead was asked if the experiences on the road will help the team later in the season.
“This isn’t an accident,” Whitehead said. “This is on purpose. Coach tells us all the time that we go on the road now because when we go on the road in the conference tournament we’re not going to be at home. We’re not going to be comfortable in our beds.”
Two years ago, in the last full season Dayton played, it played five home games, three true road games and five games on neutral courts in non-conference play.
“When you’re on the road, you’re together all the time,” Dayton coach Shauna Green said. “You get tighter. The chemistry gets better. There’s not a lot of distractions when we’re on the road. We’ve proven last year we can go and win on the road. We know we’ve got to be mentally tough, physically tough. All of this, everything we do in our planning and who we scrimmage and who we play and when we play, it’s all intentional. It’s all with a purpose. There’s no doubt about this stretch right here. Playing the caliber of teams we’re playing on the road or at neutral sites is all in preparation to accomplish our mission, which is in the A 10 of taking care of business there.”
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