Nov. 16, 2006

Box Score

DENTON, Texas - The University of Denver Pioneers could not hold off the Western Kentucky Lady Toppers in the first round of the 2006 Johnny Carino's SBC Volleyball Championship tournament in Denton, Texas, Thursday evening, losing 3-2 (33-31, 28-30, 30-24, 29-31, 13-15), after going ahead 2-1. Denver had five players with double-digit kills and four with double-digit digs and ends the season 19-12.

Sophomore Holly Benson (Colorado Springs, Colo.) posted 15 kills, 14 digs and three aces for DU. Junior Kim Muller (Ballwin, Mo.) added 15 kills to Denver's total and was part of three blocks. Senior Lisa Hunter (St. Louis, Mo.) ended her DU career with 14 kills, three assists and 13 digs. Sophomore Kerry Porter (Western Springs, Ill.) added 11 kills and was part of four blocks, while freshman Emmy Davidsmeyer (Colorado Springs, Colo.) had 10 kills and two aces.

Defensively, junior Alyssa Hampton (Parkville, Mo.) recorded a match-high 20 digs. Sophomore Clare Maxwell (Western Springs, Ill.) had 54 assists to set up DU's 72 kills.

In game one, the Pioneers had a six point lead late in the game, before WKU rallied to tie up the match at 26-26 on a 7-0 run. The Lady Toppers would not go away, but DU won the game, 33-31, on back-to-back Benson kills.

Denver got out to a 20-14 lead in game two but Western Kentucky went on a 9-1 run after a WKU timeout to win the match, 30-28.

The Pioneers rallied to completely dominate game three, leading by as many as nine points in the game. DU hit .469 in the game on the way to winning 30-24.

Game four was just as competitive of the first three games of the match with 11 ties and three lead changes. The Lady Toppers edged the Pioneers 31-29 in the game.

Game five again went the distance, with the Pioneers recording seven kills to WKU's nine, but Western Kentucky came out on top, 15-13, for the match win.

"It was a competitive match throughout," head coach Beth Kuwata said. "No team really dominated and it was a fun match to play in. Before the match we thought we matched-up with them well and I still think we do. The one thing we did not do was control Megan (Argabright)."

Argabright lead all hitters with 25 kills. Western Kentucky improves to 26-9 and will play the winner of the New Orleans/North Texas match in the semifinals on Friday.

Hunter closed out her DU career with a total of 1,520 kills, second on DU's all-time list.