Oct. 6, 2002

Box Score

DENVER - The University of Denver volleyball team lost its Sun Belt Conference home opener Sunday, losing to North Texas in four games (23-30, 30-26, 18-30, 25-30). With the loss, Denver drops to 2-11 overall, 1-2 in conference play. North Texas improves to 8-12, 3-1.

The Pioneers were very inconsistent throughout the match, attacking below .100 in games one and three but hitting much better in the second and fourth games. The Pioneers had a .182 attacking percentage in the game, but North Texas was much more consistent, hitting at a .250 clip. The Pioneers did have eight blocks to North Texas' four but the Lady Eagles had 67 kills to Denver's 53.

After North Texas captured the first game, Denver stormed back to take game two with 19 kills and just six attacking errors (.317), the Pioneers' best game of the match. But the Lady Eagles didn't come undone, winning the third game handily and taking a tough fourth for the match.

"We were just very inconsistent," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "On offense, if you look at the numbers, you'd think we'd be okay. The problem is we have people not just making errors, but the errors all seem to come in the same game. Our blocking was better and we controlled the net well. Again it's a case of us needing people to make plays at critical times in the match and we just don't have that right now. In general, I think we've gotten better but its been a pretty slow process.

Denver is next in action Friday, Oct. 11 when they travel to Arkansas to take on Arkansas State at 6 p.m.