Nov. 20, 2003

Box Score

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Despite a career-high 25 kills from the 2003 Freshman of the Year Lisa Hunter, the University of Denver volleyball team suffered a 3-2 loss (23-30, 31-29, 28-30, 30-28, 12-15) Thursday in the quarterfinals of the 2003 Hardee's Sun Belt Conference Tournament at E.A Diddle Arena on the campus of Western Kentucky. The Pioneers end their season with a record of 18-14.

In a spirited match between the two teams, the Pioneers held a 76-58 kill advantage but fell behind in four of the five games. UALR was the better hitting team, recording a .257 hitting percentage to Denver's .209. The Trojans also held a 17-14 advantage in blocks.

The Pioneers dug themselves a huge hole in the first game, falling behind 20-5 early on and falling short in an attempt to come back. They fought all the way back to cut the UALR lead to 26-21 but the Trojans held them off to capture the first game 30-23.

The second game was a much more back-and-forth affair, with neither team holding more than a three point advantage. Despite recording just a .096 hitting percentage in the game, Denver was able to pull out the win thanks to their seniors Olympia Hughes (Casper, Wyo.) and Andrea Baron (West Vancouver, B.C.), who had six and five kills in the game, respectively.

The Pioneers dropped the third game 30-28 after again trying to come back after an early deficit. Denver blew three point leads on two different occasions and UALR's Ivana Vracar had six kills to lead the Trojans.

The fourth game looked like it would be the end for the Pioneers, who fell behind by eight points at 20-12 and looked like they would be sent home early. But the resilient Pioneers went on a 14-5 run to take their first lead of the game at 26-25 and closed out the Trojans 30-28 to force a decisive fifth game.

Denver had its best hitting game in the fifth game, recording a .467 hitting percentage and just one error. But the Trojans were a little better, holding a 12-8 kill advantage and ending the game on a 5-0 run that sent the Pioneers out of the tournament, 15-12. Denver led the game 12-10 but was unable to muster another point the rest of the way in bowing out of the SBC Tournament in the quarterfinal round for the second straight year.

"If the fifth game went to 30 points we probably would have pulled it out," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "In almost every game tonight we didn't start playing until it was too late. We let them get too big of a lead and spent a lot of energy just getting back into the game and it caught up with us. I'm happy with our effort tonight and with how we competed but we just ran out of points in game five."