Nov. 11, 2003

Box Score

DENVER - The University of Denver volleyball team recorded just a .183 attack percentage and No. 15 CSU used a 54-35 kill advantage as the Rams swept the Pioneers 3-0 (30-21, 30-24, 30-28) Tuesday night in Denver's final home match of the season. With the loss the Pioneers drop to 16-13 on the season. CSU improves to 22-4.

Denver jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the first game but the Rams pulled ahead with a 12-4 run that gave CSU its first lead of the game at 10-9, a lead they would never lose in a 30-21 win. The Rams recorded a match-high .444 attack percentage in the game and had just four attacking errors in 27 chances and held the Pioneers to 12 kills and a .125 hitting percentage.

The second game was all CSU as the Rams won the first point and never trailed in a 30-24 win. The Rams led by as many as nine points in the game but Denver cut the lead to just five with a 9-4 midway through the game that made it 24-19 CSU. But the Rams held on down the stretch, outscoring the Rams 6-5 as Denver was unable to overcome its early deficit. Denver recorded just a .125 hitting percentage for the second straight game and was held to a match-low 10 kills.

The third game was the most closely contested game of the night, with Denver holding the biggest lead at three points on five different occasions. With the score tied at 24-all, the two teams traded points for the next six points before the Rams grabbed the lead at 28-27. After a Denver timeout, Bri French had a service error that evened the match again at 28-all but consecutive kills by CSU ended any Denver chances at an upset.

"I would have liked for us to play better tonight," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "We had some passing breakdowns and that was basically the difference in the match. Against a team like this, when they give you balls to hit you have to take advantage and end the point and we didn't do that. I think if we would have had more digs it could have made a difference in the match but tonight we didn't make any plays off their hard hit shots."

Tuesday's match was the final match for Denver's three seniors, Andrea Baron (West Vancouver, B.C), Olympia Hughes (Casper, Wyo.) and Jen Karas (Granby, Colo.). All three have their names etched in Denver's record book in various categories.

The Pioneers are next in action on Friday when they return to Sun Belt Conference play with a match at New Orleans at 6 p.m.