Sept. 21, 2002

Box Score

DENVER - The University of Denver volleyball split its two games on the final day of the University of Denver Invitational, defeating Maryland in five games (31-29, 26-30, 30-27, 30-23, 15-10) for its first win of the season and falling to No. 19 Santa Clara 3-0 (16-30, 12-30, 22-30). With the split Denver finished the weekend with a 1-9 overall record. No. 8 Minnesota won the tournament 3-0 record, Santa Clara finished 2-1, Denver 1-2 and Maryland 0-3.

Denver played its best match of the season in the afternoon session against Maryland, attacking on a season-high .252 clip and recording another season-best in kills with 66. The Pioneers had three players in double digits in kills, led by a season-high 20 from junior Olympia Hughes (Casper, Wyo.) and 19 from junior Jen Karas (Granby, Colo.). The Pioneers played their most solid defensive match of the year as well, recording 63 digs and eight blocks in the match.

"The best thing about the first match is that it was a huge boost for everyone," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "Credit goes out to the whole team, they stayed positive and continued to work hard and believed they could do it. The win is great but more than anything we needed to get rid of that zero in the win column. It's a big win for us."

In the second match, the Pioneers were overmatched by the more experienced and talented Broncos and lost in three games. Following the five-game win earlier in the afternoon against Maryland, the Pioneers were flat in spots and looked tired at times. Denver had just 24 kills in the match and no one player recorded more than six kills in the three games. Santa Clara torched the Pioneers with 62 kills and an attacking percentage of .405.

"We knew they'd be one of the best ball handling teams we'd face all year and we expended a lot of emotional energy that first match," Kuwata said. "Santa Clara makes you earn your points and that's an area we struggled in tonight. This was the toughest weekend we've ever had here. In two of our three matches we played better than we have all year. But we needed to continue to improve and I think we accomplished that this weekend."

The Denver volleyball team is again in action next Friday, Sept. 24 when they open Sun Belt Conference play at South Alabama at 6 p.m.