Sept. 28, 2002

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS, La. - The University of Denver volleyball team suffered its first Sun Belt Conference loss Saturday night, falling in four games (27-30, 20-30, 30-19, 20-30) to New Orleans. With the loss, Denver drops to 2-10 on the season, 1-1 in Sun Belt play. New Orleans improves to 7-9, 1-1.

The Pioneers were again led by junior Olympia Hughes (Casper, Wyo.), who for the second straight match recorded a career-high in kills with 24. She had 22 in Friday's win over South Alabama. Hughes also led the team with a .275 attacking percentage with 24 kills and just 10 attacking errors in 51 chances. Two other Pioneers finished with nine kills each, junior Jen Karas (Granby, Colo.) and junior Andrea Baron (W. Vancouver, B.C.).

Denver played its best game of the match in the third game in which the Pioneers won 30-19. Denver attacked at a .469 clip with 18 kills and just three errors in that game and blocked eight New Orleans attacks.

"We ended up doing a good job defensively," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "Defense was a key in this match. We didn't end up getting much offensive production from our middles and in order for us to be successful that needs to happen. In general, we're playing okay volleyball, not great volleyball and our inconsistent play has been a key. We're still looking for players to make plays in clutch times."

Denver is next in action Friday, Oct. 4 when they host Louisiana-Lafayette in Sun Belt Conference play in Hamilton Gymnasium at 7 p.m.