Oct. 31, 2003

Box Score

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The University of Denver volleyball team overcame a poor start to win the second and third games but New Mexico State held the Pioneers to negative hitting percentages in the fourth and fifth games and held on for a 3-2 (30-17, 28-30, 28-30, 30-14, 15-9) win over Denver Friday night at the Pan American Center. With the loss the Pioneers drop to 15-10 on the season, 6-4 in the Sun Belt Conference. NMSU extended its winning streak to 15 matches and improves to 21-4, 10-0.

The Pioneers dropped the first game 30-17 after the Aggies recorded a .471 hitting percentage and a 19-10 kill advantage. The Pioneers had just 10 kills and six errors on 29 total attacks while New Mexico State had just three errors in taking a 1-0 lead.

The Pioneers bounced back to capture both the second and third games by the same 30-28 scores. In the third game, the Pioneers jumped out to a 7-1 advantage early on and held the lead for the duration of the game. New Mexico State tried to make a game of it late but Denver held its ground despite a yellow card issued to head coach Beth Kuwata with the Pioneers ahead 26-23. The third game was the only game in which Denver had a kill advantage over the Aggies in the match (16-14).

In the fourth game the momentum clearly returned to the home team, as NMSU handed the Pioneers their worst single-game loss of the season with a 30-14 decision to force a decisive fifth game. The Aggies recorded a match-high .472 hitting percentage and held the Pioneers to a -.029 attack percentage (9 kills, 10 errors, 35 total attacks) in forcing a fifth game, the two team's 10th game in two matches this season.

In the fifth game the Aggies held the Pioneers to another negative hitting percentage (-.100) and outkilled the Pioneers 7-4 for their second five-game win over Denver this season.

"I am pretty happy with how we played," Kuwata said. "I think this is the best volleyball we've played in a long time, even over the wins we've gotten early on in the season. I was pleased with our defense, we were as scrappy as we've ever been and I was happy with how we competed. We battled back after playing poorly in the first game."

Three Pioneers recorded double digits in kills led by senior Andrea Baron's (West Vancouver, B.C.) 14 and freshman Lisa Hunter's (St. Louis, Mo.) 13. Senior Jennifer Karas (Granby, Colo.) played outside hitter for Denver for the first time all season and finished with a season-high six kills.

Denver is next in action on Sunday when they take on Arkansas-Little Rock at noon MST.