FORT WORTH, Texas The University of Denver volleyball team held Georgia Southern to .007 hitting percentage in four games to begin the Molten/LaQuinta Invitational with a 3-1 win (30-16, 30-12, 30-32, 30-22) on Friday afternoon.

“When we finally decide we want to play we can play great volleyball” head coach Beth Kuwata said. “We need to do better job of controlling matches. We have the ability to control the match and we didn’t do a good job of that today.”

Seniors Kim Muller (Ballwin, Mo.) and Alyta Baris (Belvidere, Ill.) led the Pioneers by hitting over .500 in the match. Baris hit .550 in the match with 13 kills, while Muller hit .548 on 18 kills. Muller tallied three blocks as well. Junior Holly Benson (Colorado Springs, Colo.) also had 18 kills and added 18 digs and a block.

DU (4-3) held the Eagles (3-6) to a -.126 hitting percentage and eight kills in the first two games of the match, winning 30-16 and 30-12.

In the third set, DU had its worst game of the match, hitting .133 and totaling 19 errors in the 30-32 loss.

DU rebounded nicely, totaling 18 kills in the frame, including eight of Muller’s final total. The Pioneers went on an 8-0 run in the middle of the game and went on to win the match, 30-22.

The University of Denver volleyball team returns to action at the Molten/LaQuinta Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 8 at 1:30 p.m. MT against Lamar and closes out the tournament at 6 p.m. MT against host TCU.