PITTSBURGH – The Duquesne volleyball team (7-6, 2-0 A-10) returns home to UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse for the first time this season when it takes on defending A-10 Champion Dayton (8-5, 2-0 A-10) in a home-and-home series on Friday, Oct. 1 and Sunday, Oct. 3.
 
The Dukes will host the Flyers in the team's home-opener on Friday at 7 p.m., before traveling to Dayton for a 1 p.m. match on Sunday. Both matches will broadcast live on ESPN+.
 
SERIES BREAKDOWN VS. DAYTON

• All-Time Series: Dayton leads, 48-4
• First Meeting: Sept. 15, 1990 at Duquesne – UD won 3-0
• Last Meeting: March 20, 2021 at Duquesne – UD won 3-0 I Recap | Box Score
• Streak: Dayton, +12

QUICK HITS

• Duquesne is playing its first home game of the season after opening with 13 games on the road.
• Six of the team's next seven matches will be played at home inside UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.
• The Dukes and Flyers were both in the A-10 West Division this past spring and met three times. Dayton won all three of those meetings.
• Three of Duquesne's four wins all-time against the Flyers occurred on the Dukes home court.
• The forth, and last time DU defeated Dayton, was in the 2013 A-10 Championship Quarterfinal round. Duquesne went on to win the A-10 Championship that season and made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
• Dayton has never lost to Duquesne on its home court (24-0).
• The Dukes opened A-10 play last weekend with wins at George Mason (Box Score) and George Washington (Box Score).
• DU rallied from a two-set deficit to overcome GW last Saturday. Summer Slade led the Dukes with a season-high 17 kills with 14 digs in the win. She also posted a kill-dig double-double at Mason with 13 and 10.
• Slade ranks second on the team with identical lines of 2.64 kills and digs per set.
• The Dukes matched a season-high with 13 aces against GW.
• Dayton enters the weekend second in the A-10 with 1.87 aces per set, while the Dukes slot right behind the Flyers with 1.55 per set.
• Setter Hailey Poling enters the weekend leading the A-10 with 9.83 assists per set and 511 total assists. She established a career-high with 58 assists in a five-set loss to Akron in August.
• Earlier this season, Morgan Kelly broke a 22-year old Duquesne record for kills in a three-set match when she put down 20 in the win over Canisius (Box Score) at the Western NY Invitational.
• The previous record of 19 was set by both Anita Ball (09/04/99 vs. Bowling Green) and Mindy Buhrow (10/10/98 vs. Dayton).
• Kelly, who ranks third in the A-10 with 3.79 kills per set, established a career-high with 24 kills on 60 attacks (.217 hitting percentage) in a five-set loss to Akron earlier this season.
• Middle Hitter Anita Parrott ranks third in the A-10 with 1.09 blocks per set. Parrott has matched a career-high with nine blocks twice this season in matches versus Akron and Liberty.
• Three of Duquesne's six losses have come in five sets. After not playing any five-set matches in the spring, the Dukes have already played in as more five-set matches this season (5) then they did in the entire 2019 season.DU is 2-3 in five-set matches this season.
• The Dukes only have one loss this season in three sets. Duquesne was defeated in straight sets by Buffalo on Sept. 10 at the Western New York Invitational.

DUQUESNE HEAD COACH STEVE OPPERMAN (Ohio State '87)

• Steve Opperman enters his 24^th season as the head coach of the Dukes in 2021.
• He owns a career-record of 456-455 and a mark of 337-340 at Duquesne.
• Opperman collected his 450^th-career victory with a 3-0 win over Youngstown State in the season opener.
• The New Bremen, Ohio native is Duquesne's all-time winningest coach with 337 career victories.
• He is a four-time Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year (co-2001, co-2004, co-2010 and 2013).
• Opperman coached the first two AVCA All-Americans in program history, Liz Homan (2010) and Arielle Love (2014).
• The Ohio State alum has coached 14 First or Second Team A-10 All-Conference players (a total of 22 times).
• He has coached 22 A-10 All-Rookie Team member.
• Opperman arrived in Pittsburgh in 1998 after spending seven seasons as the head coach at Wright State, where he amassed a record of 119-116 from 1991-97.

SCOUTING THE FLYERS (ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS)

• Dayton enters the weekend 8-5 overall, 2-0 in A-10 play, and winners of six of the last seven.
• Four of the Flyers five losses have been at the hands of "Power Five" schools, including defending National Champion Kentucky back in August.
• Dayton opened A-10 play last weekend with wins over both GW and George Mason.
• Two-time A-10 Player of the Year Jamie Peterson leads the A-10 with 4.09 kills per set.
• After being limited to five kills at GW, the two-time AVCA All-American finished with 19 in the team's three-set win over George Mason. The 19 was a season-high in a three-set match for Peterson.
• Lia Hawken is the reigning A-10 Rookie of the Week after posing 2.57 kills per set last week.
• She finished with a season-high nine kills in both wins over GW and Mason.
• Dayton leads the A-10 in blocks with 2.29 per set. Amelia Moore (1.09 per set) and Alayna Yates (0.97) rank fourth and fifth in the league, respectively, in the category.