LINCOLN, Neb. -- Freshman outside hitter Taylor Richard had a career-high eight kills as Western Michigan fell to No. 20 Dayton, 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-16), at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in each team's final match of the Ameritas Players Challenge.
Richard played a full six rotations for the first time this season in the final two sets to account for her career high, while adding four digs for the Broncos (6-4). Freshman libero Lena Oliver led all players with 13 digs and junior setter Sam Viox added 23 assists, nine digs and two blocks. Junior middle blocker Ashley Turnage led the Broncos with three blocks, including one solo.
The Flyers (6-3) held the Broncos to .040 attacking with 28 kills and 24 errors. WMU limited Dayton to .188 hitting, but they had 39 kills. The Flyers also took control with their blocking (11.5 blocks) and serving (six aces), while WMU countered with five blocks and one ace. The Broncos also missed more serves (5-3).
"Dayton is a very good team, but they just had to play hard enough to beat us," head coach Colleen Munson said. "Our side of the court was very, very weak. We weren't making adjustments and we were very rarely in system. Our first ball contact and communication was weak. Overall, our execution was just not there. It's disappointing because Dayton is a team we can compete against if we had been sharper on our side of the net."
Middle blocker Lindsey Fletemier led the Flyers with 15 kills, seven blocks and .583 attacking.
"This weekend, we gained the overall experience of seeing volleyball played at a high level," Munson explained. "We take home individual responsibilities within the team dynamic. They see what it means to block a fast slide, what it means to drive hard when you are a middle, what it means to communicate and identify what's happening on the left side. We just learned a lot individually and collectively as a team.
"Do we belong here? Absolutely. Are we ready for it? Not at this point."
The Broncos trailed by one, 8-7, after a kill by freshman Ali Gossen until Dayton took control with an 11-2 run, 19-9, to put the Broncos away.
The Broncos hit .000 in the set with seven kills and seven errors, while the Flyers connected for 14 kills hitting .212.
A kill by senior outside hitter Allyson Doyle and block by sophomore middle blocker Jessica Brown and Viox pulled WMU within one, 10-9, early in the second, but Dayton responded with four in a row to go up five, 14-9. The Broncos fell behind by six, 17-11, until scoring four in a row, 17-15, to force Dayton to call timeout. The Flyers went back up five, 20-15, but WMU had another run started by a block by junior middle blocker Ashley Turnage and Doyle and two Richard kills to pull within one, 20-19. Dayton called timeout and scored the next point, but WMU stayed within one on kills by Turnage, 21-20 and Doyle, 22-21. WMU wouldn't score again after Doyle's finish as UD took the second, 25-21.
The Broncos came back with 12 kills in the second set to match Dayton, but had two more errors, 9-7.
Western Michigan went back and forth with Dayton to start the third set, but the Flyers slowly began to pull away. Dayton built its lead to seven, 18-11, with four points in a row and WMU couldn't recover, 25-16.
The Broncos continued to struggle hitting .028 in the third set, while Dayton had 13 kills and two aces to put the set away.
Western Michigan plays its final pre-conference tournament of the season next weekend in South Orange, N.J., at the Seton Hall Invitational against the host Pirates, UMBC and Northeastern.
