Box Score DENVER The University of Denver volleyball team (19-4, 8-2 SBC) defeated the University of South Alabama Jaguars (10-10, 4-8 SBC) in straight sets (25-23, 25-19, 25-13) on Sunday afternoon at Hamilton Gymnasium. The win improves the Pioneers to 13-1 at home and an 11-2 record in three-set matches.
“I want us to compete and play at a consistently high level each time we step onto the court and I think we did that in sets two and three,” said head coach Beth Kuwata. “We need to be able to come out and play our style of high-energy volleyball because our schedule gets tougher in the next two weeks and we need to be able to maintain our rhythm and focus.”
Junior Emmy Davidsmeyer (Colorado Springs, Colo.) led all hitters for the afternoon with 10 kills on 24 attacks for a .250 hitting percentage. The right-side hitter also finished with three blocks, three digs and three assists. Coming off a career performance on Friday, senior Jacqueline Paul (Albuquerque, N.M.) added eight kills on 18 attacks for a .333 hitting percentage, while also pacing the Pioneers at the net with four blocks.
Defensively, freshman Corinne Richards (Greeley, Colo.) aided the Pioneers at the net as she finished with a career-high four block assists. Sophomore libero Kacie Wikierak (Crystal Lake, Ill.) finished with 20 of Denver’s 44 digs, while also tallying one service ace.
Both teams exchanged points throughout much of the first set, with neither team being able to pull ahead with a comfortable cushion. With the score tied 17-17 the Jaguars grabbed three quick points to take a 20-17 lead forcing Denver to call a time out. Coming out of the break, the Pioneers were able to grab the next point on an attack miss-cue by South Alabama, but the Jaguars answered right back rattling off two more points to take a four-point advantage.
With the momentum seemingly on the side of the Jaguars, the Pioneers took advantage of a serving error by South Alabama and rallied to within one point on back-to-back kills by Davidsmeyer and a service ace by senior Holly Benson (Colorado Springs, Colo.). With Denver now knocking on the door and the score 23-22 in favor of South Alabama, the Jaguars called a timeout to try and regroup.
Unwilling to admit defeat the Pioneers came out of the break and grabbed the next point off a kill by Jordan Raines (Fr., Coppell, Texas) to tie the score at 23 all. With the crowd behind them and the taste of victory looming, Denver grabbed the next two points to seal the win in the first set on back-to-back attacking errors by South Alabama.
Continuing with the energy from winning the first set, the Pioneers won the second set 25-19 and the third set 25-13 to seal their eighth conference win of the season.
The Pioneers will return to the court on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. to face the Mean Green of North Texas, before heading on the road to Arkansas to face Arkansas State and Arkansas Little Rock. Denver will face the Red Wolves of Arkansas State on Friday, Oct. 31 at 6 p.m. (MT) and the Trojans of Arkansas Little Rock on Sunday, Nov. 2 at 11 a.m. (MT).
- PIONEERS -
