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The Hunted
The Hunted
John Mad Dog Churan
Published by John C.
11-28-2007
Smile The Hunted

COLUMBUS (OH) -- It’s a great place to be if you can get there, but it is also is a little scary and certainly something that is not commonplace for a team that has Dayton scrawled across the front of their jerseys. Being in the catbird’s seat is not something that a UD fan is accustomed to.

You see, the UD volleyball team has been picked as one of the favorites to reach the Sweet 16. Certainly the women’s soccer team had a season like this recently, but the occasion that jumps out at any UD fan is when Oliver Purnell took his last team to the NCAA tournament as a 4 seed and got their butts whipped. UD was over-seeded and Tulsa was under-seeded. Although it was a 4 vs. 13 game, it looked like the 4 and 13 were in the wrong order.

Don’t expect that this weekend. Tim Horsmon has his team ready. This is not a team that will overlook it’s Friday opponent, Lipscomb.

”We keep talking to the players that this is a one game elimination tournament and you can’t take anyone lightly and look toward tomorrow. Our view is that the next match is the biggest match of the season and you can’t play on Saturday if you don’t play well on Friday.”

Preparation for the game has been pretty much the same for the players as every week is. There is no sense changing what has work very well this magical season. That isn’t necessarily true for the coaches, however.

”Things aren’t being handled a great deal differently than we normally do other than the coaches have to prepare for three teams, one that we know and two that we might be able to play. We are going to be doing more as coaches but we really don’t want to ask the players to do any more than practice hard and have a good week of preparation.”

Lipscomb is a solid team located in Nashville. They played just as well away from home (12-7) as they did on their own court (8-4). They played several strong teams including Arizona and Pepperdine. In some ways, they resemble Xavier in that they are not as big as Dayton but are fairly athletic. It is a team that Horsmon will be ready for.

”I really didn’t know much about Lipscomb before we were able to look at a couple of games on tape. We also called a couple of coaches that we know and gained some insight from them. We’ll take all of that and put together a game plan for Friday. We really don’t come in contact with many of the teams on their schedule so it makes it a little harder to get as good a handle as we would like.

”They really don’t compare to anyone that we have played this year but they have some very athletic kids. They are smaller than us, but they handle the ball very well.”

Michigan State and Kentucky come from BCS conferences and have obviously played consistently difficult schedules. Although there hasn’t been any recent history with Kentucky, there certainly is with Michigan State.

”It’s ironic that Michigan State will be coming here. The last time we saw them was at their place when we played them in the first round of the tournament in 2003. That game has probably been the biggest win we have had in our five years at UD. They are a good team that is playing really well right now and we may get an opportunity to play them.

”Should we win Friday night, we will spend the time before the match on Saturday looking at film and reading scouting reports. We’ll have the whole team out watching the Kentucky-Michigan State game for a little bit before we start our pregame discussion for Lipscomb.”

At 32 wins and one avenged loss, Dayton is certainly the hunted this weekend. They have shown throughout the year that they can do well as both the hunted and the hunter as can be seen by their numerous tournament wins. They have played the big schools and the not-so-big schools and done well against all of them. They know how to play with a lead and they are never backing off when they are behind. This is a team that Horsmon will have ready to play no matter who the opposition is. Let’s just hope that the Red Scare can hoist a sign at about 9 PM on Saturday that reads, “WE WANT NEBRASKA”
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