Volleyball:
Coach Mike DAYTON — Tucker looked around in the first week of preseason practices for the Dayton Flyers women’s soccer team and thought, “Oh my gosh, we are really going to be good.”
That was quite the realization considering his team lost two of the top players in program history, Ashley Campbell and Nicole Waters, to graduation.
“You could rely on them a lot,” Tucker said. “Their individual brilliance overcame a lot. It also freed up a little space for people.”
The Flyers returned nine starters, and that’s why they were the favorites to win the Atlantic 10 Conference in a preseason poll of conference coaches. They’ve been the favorite the last eight years.
Despite those expectations, UD started the season 0-2, losing 2-1 in overtime at Cincinnati on Friday and 2-1 at Ohio in Athens on Sunday.
“Now that we’ve started, we’ve seen a little bit of tenseness,” Tucker said. “We’re more worried about making mistakes than making plays. I think that’s coming around. I think both of the games we lost we could have won. We played well at times but made boneheaded errors.”
The Flyers play their home opener at Baujan Field at 7:30 p.m. Friday against Bucknell and then host Kent State at noon Sunday. They play five more nonconference games before beginning A-10 play at George Mason on Oct. 2.
“We’re probably not at a point where we can concern ourselves about winning a NCAA berth based on our non-conference schedule,” Tucker said, “so we better prepare ourselves for the conference and go out and win that thing. That’s the plan.”
The Miami RedHawks released their nonconference men’s basketball schedule on Wednesday, and the Dayton Flyers are not on it.
Miami and Dayton have played 132 times since 1909. They played the last two seasons. The last time they didn’t play was in the 2013-14 season. After that season, they signed a two-year contract to play in 2014-15 and 2015-16, and Dayton coach Archie Miller said the series would be reevaluated.
Dayton has not released its nonconference schedule but is expected to do so soon. The following games are known: vs. Austin Peay, Nov. 11; at Alabama, Nov. 15; at Wooden Legacy tournament, Nov. 24 (vs. Nebraska), Nov. 25 (TBD) and Nov. 27 (TBD); vs. Northwestern at United Center in Chicago, Dec. 17; vs. Vanderbilt, Dec. 21; vs. VMI, Dec. 23.
The Dayton vs. Northwestern game will start at 7 p.m. and will be televised by the Big Ten Network.
Men’s basketball:
The Flyers were picked to win the A-10 in the preseason poll. They have won six of the last seven regular-season titles and were 14-0 in A-10 play last season.
Dayton opens Friday at Wright State’s Holiday Inn Invitational against Toledo.