Sept. 27, 2002

Box Score

MOBILE, Ala. - The University of Denver volleyball team, led by junior Olympia Hughes' (Casper, Wyo.) career-best 22 kills, opened Sun Belt Conference play with a convincing 3-1 (30-27, 19-30, 30-20, 30-27) victory over South Alabama Friday night at Jaguar Gym. The Pioneers improved their season record to 2-9 overall, 1-0 in conference play. South Alabama drops to 5-6, 0-1.

Denver easily posted its best offensive output of the 2002 season, recording 62 kills (a season-high for four games) and a season-best .280 attacking percentage. The Pioneers had just 20 attacking errors on the night and junior Andrea Baron (West Vancouver, B.C.) had a match-high .571 attacking percentage as she had 14 kills and just two errors.

The Pioneers opened with a 30-27 win in game one as they dominated the Jaguars with a .324 attack percentage. South Alabama returned the favor in game two with a 30-19 win, but Denver proved to be the stronger team with a convincing win in the third game and a hard fought win in the fourth.

"It was a good win for us obviously," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "Any win right now is big and we're happy with it. We talked about having the opportunity to start a new season (Sun Belt Conference play) and that the preseason exists only to help us get ready for the conference. Hopefully I can say after this weekend and a few more matches that our preseason did prepare us for conference. But I am pleased with our effort, we hung in there throughout the entire match and it was a big win."

Hughes also finished with two solo blocks on the night and freshman Kristen Halt (St. Charles, Ill.) added one for Denver. The Pioneers finished with 10 blocks as a team.

Denver is next in action tomorrow night when they try to go 2-0 in Sun Belt Conference play at New Orleans at 6 p.m.