CINCINNATI – Xavier wound up on the wrong end of the scoreboard as they fell to visiting Dayton in each team’s first game of their Atlantic 10 schedule. The Flyers took the match in three games posting scores of 29-31, 27-30, and 24-30.

The Musketeers played catch-up all night as they found themselves making runs only to have them stifled by the Flyers. In the first game, XU pounded out 20 kills in the game while recording 24 digs but in the end, they could not find a way to answer the UD pressure.

Games two and three found Xavier hitting below .100 and hindering themselves with costly hitting errors. The Flyers took full advantage of the XU mistakes on their way to recording more kills than the Musketeers in both matches.

The lone bright spot on the night for the Musketeers was senior setter Molly Martin. Martin came into the night just 30 assists shy of moving into second place in Xavier history for assists in a career. With the score tied at 8-8 in the third stanza, junior Carley Horvath pounded one home to give Martin her 31st assist on the night to move her into second place in the XU history books. Martin finished the night with 39 assists to go along with eight digs and one ace. Sophomore Astyn Bjorklund led all Musketeers with 13 kills, while Kate Duchek and Danielle Skrajewski each had double digit kills as well with 11 and 10, respectively. Skrajewski and Jordan Brightwell led the XU defensive effort on the night as they both tallied 13 digs in the match.

The loss drops Xavier to 6-8 on the year and 0-1 in Atlantic 10 play. Dayton improves to 9-5 and 1-0 in the Atlantic 10. The Musketeers will be back in action this weekend as they welcome conference foes Rhode Island and Fordham to Cintas Center with the action starting at 7:00 p.m. Friday night against URI.