Oct. 11, 2002

Box Score

JONESBORO, Ark. - The University of Denver volleyball team lost its third consecutive match Friday night, falling at Arkansas State 3-1 (20-30, 31-19, 16-30, 22-30). With the loss, Denver drops to 2-12 on the season, 1-3 in Sun Belt Conference play. Arkansas State improves to 7-10, 2-2.

The Pioneers had three players register double digits in kills, led by juniors Jen Karas (Granby, Colo.) with 16 and Andrea Baron (West Vancouver, B.C.) with 14. Baron also had two solo blocks on the night and was Denver's best hitter with a stellar .500 percentage. She had just three attacking errors in 22 attempts.

The Pioneers however, hit on just a .160 attacking percentage as a team and had 53 kills and 30 attack errors. Arkansas State was the much stronger team offensively, registering 72 kills and just 26 errors for a .329 hitting percentage.

"This match was similar to Sunday's match (a 3-1 loss to North Texas) where we were very inconsistent," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "Andrea (Baron) had a great match for us and we were able to get the ball to our middles but our passing was suspect tonight. We couldn't stop a lot of the quick offenses things they were doing across the net. We just couldn't get it done."

Junior Olympia Hughes (Casper, Wyo.) also had 10 kills for the Pioneers. Arkansas State's Miranda Griffin led a parade of four ASU players with double digits in kills with a match-high 20.

The Pioneers also lost their setter, sophomore Emilee Gihring (Idaho Falls, Idaho) to an injury during the match. It was unclear if she'd be ready to play in Sunday's match at New Mexico State.

Denver is next in action Sunday, Oct. 13 when they travel to play at New Mexico State at 1 p.m.