Oct. 20, 2002

Box Score

DENVER - The University of Denver volleyball team recorded a season-best 19 blocks Sunday afternoon, but it wasn't enough for the Pioneers as Denver dropped its sixth straight Sun Belt Conference match, losing to Western Kentucky 3-1 (28-30, 30-26, 26-30, 23-30). With the loss, the Pioneers drop to 2-15 overall on the season, 1-6 in conference play. The Lady Toppers improve to 22-4, 7-0.

The Pioneers played their best defensive match of the season against the East Division leading Lady Toppers, who came into the match riding a 14-game Sun Belt Conference winning streak. Denver had 19 blocks in the match, led by junior Andrea Baron (West Vancouver, B.C.) who had 14 block assists. The Pioneers were also within 15 of the Lady Toppers in digs (69-54).

Three Pioneers recorded double digits in kills led by Baron's 12 and teammate Jen Karas's (Granby, Colo.) 12. Junior Olympia Hughes (Casper, Wyo.) chipped in 11 for Denver. Though the Pioneers attacked on just a .089 hitting percentage, Denver held Western Kentucky to just a .133 percentage in the four games.

"Our blocking and overall defense was really good today," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "Our serving was much better than Friday too but we just weren't efficient on offense. When it counted we just didn't have anyone really step up. We gave up some errors that just deflated us and to beat the best team in our conference you just can't do that."

The Pioneers had just six service errors in the match after recording 16 in Friday's loss to Middle Tennessee.

Denver is next in action this Wednesday when they take on in-state foe Air Force at 7 p.m. in Hamilton Gymnasium.