Nov. 7, 2004

Box Score

DENTON, Texas - Sophomore outside hitters Lisa Hunter (St. Louis, Mo.) and junior Kristin Halt (St. Charles, Ill.) combined for 32 kills and the University of Denver volleyball team recorded 69 kills in a 3-1 (30-23, 33-31, 25-30, 30-27) win over North Texas Sunday afternoon at the Snake Pit. Denver's second consecutive victory improves its overall record to 12-13 overall, 6-7 in the Sun Belt Conference. North Texas drops to 6-20, 5-8.

The Pioneers had one of their best offensive matches of the season, holding a 69-66 kill advantage and recording a .206 hitting percentage. Denver's defense was especially strong, recording 13 team blocks and holding the Mean Green to just a .162 attack percentage.

After winning the first game 30-23, Denver won a hard-fought second game behind five kills each from Halt and junior Amanda Millard (Southlake, Texas). The Pioneers trailed for most of the game and fought off four Mean Green game points before winning 33-31 to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.

North Texas won the third game and tried to make the match interesting in the fourth but the Pioneers took over late in the game as Hunter and freshman Kim Muller (Ballwin, Mo.) combined for 11 kills.

"This was a big win and we needed it," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "I think our outside hitters were the difference today, we were able to effectively get the ball to Kristin (Halt) and Lisa (Hunter) and they both played very well. I thought one of the keys in this match was for us to out-dig them and we did that and now we need to focus on our two matches next week."

The Pioneers recorded 84 digs as a team, its second-highest dig total in a match this season. Three Pioneers recorded double digits in kills, led by 16 each from Hunter and Halt. Muller added 15 for the Pioneers, who have won two consecutive matches for the first time since Oct. 15-17.

Denver is next in action on Friday, Nov. 12 when it hosts South Alabama at 7 p.m.