Oct. 14, 2005

Box Score

DENVER - The University of Denver volleyball team dropped its first match since Sept. 10 at Western Kentucky Friday evening. The Hilltoppers swept DU 30-20, 30-25, 30-28 and improved to 20-2 overall and 6-0 in the Sun Belt. The Pioneers, (10-6 overall, 4-1 Sun Belt) look to rebound Sunday against Middle Tennessee.

Heading into tonight's contest, Denver, who currently leads the west division of the Sun Belt, was well aware of the battle it would face against the No. 1 team in the east.

"Western Kentucky did exactly what we thought they would do," said head coach Beth Kuwata. "Their offense was what we expected, but we did not do enough defensively to stop their attack. The difference came down to defense and from that aspect, we just were not in the game."

Rookie standout Kerry Porter (Western Springs, Ill.), who came into Friday's match leading the conference in hit percentage, was kept scoreless with a season-low three attempts. Seniors Amanda Millard (Southlake, Texas) and Lisa Hunter (St. Louis, Mo.) handled most of the DU scoring with Millard tallying 12 kills and Hunter leading Denver with 15 kills.

In games one and two, the Pioneers had a hard time finding their rhythm. WKU posted a team hit percentage of .500 to run away with game one, but DU began to make headway in game two, improving from a .238 hit percentage in game one to .283 in game two. After the break, Denver came out with more energy in game three, leading Western Kentucky for the majority of the game. However, the Hilltoppers mounted a comeback to reclaim the lead at 26-25 and never looked back. DU would score two more points before WKU took game three and the match.

The weekend does not get any easier for DU as the Pioneers now move on Middle Tennessee, who sit second behind Western Kentucky in the east. The Blue Raiders only conference loss came at the hands of WKU and the Pioneers travel to Murfreesboro for an 11 a.m. matchup Sunday looking for a weekend split.

"Middle Tennessee is a completely different team than Western Kentucky, Kuwata said. They are a little more outside dominant than what we saw tonight. It's important that we do a better job of distributing our offensive attack across the front to be competitive Sunday."