Oct. 21, 2003

Box Score

USAFA, Colo. - The Air Force volleyball team used 13 service aces - a season-high for a University of Denver opponent - and held the Pioneers to a negative hitting percentage in the fourth game for a 3-1 (30-25, 30-21, 28-30, 30-11) win Tuesday night at Cadet East Gym. With the loss the Pioneers drop to 14-9 on the season. Air Force improves to 12-9.

In the first game the Falcons had a 17-10 kill advantage and the Pioneers recorded just a .143 hitting percentage in Air Force's 30-25 win. Denver also had four service errors and six attacking errors as the Pioneers lost the first game for the third consecutive match.

The second game wasn't any better for the Pioneers as Air Force held the Pioneers to a .133 hitting percentage and just 12 kills in a 30-21 win. Air Force used a .281 hitting percentage and six kills from Kristin Hamlett to take a 2-0 lead in the match. Senior Olympia Hughes (Casper, Wyo.) had a team-high six kills in the game for Denver.

Denver bounced back in the third game with a .250 hitting percentage and eight kills from freshman Lisa Hunter (St. Louis, Mo.) for a 30-28 win to cut the Air Force lead to 2-1. Denver had just five attack errors and led for most of the game to force a fourth game.

The fourth game was all Falcons as Air Force jumped out to an 11-1 lead and cruised home for a 30-11 win for its first win over Denver since 2001. Air Force had a .500 hitting percentage in the game and used four service aces and held the Pioneers to a -.154 hitting percentage as Denver had just six kills and 10 errors.

"We had no rhythm tonight," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "Air Force is a very tough serving team and I don't think we've passed that poorly all season long. They kept us off-balance and we never were able to settle into any type of tempo. We couldn't do the things that we're used to doing and this was the result."

Denver is next in action this Saturday when they take on Florida International at 7 p.m. in Hamilton Gymnasium.

...PIONEERS VOLLEYBALL...