DENVER The University of Denver volleyball team (15-2, 4-0 SBC) extended its winning streak to a season-high nine matches with a 3-0 (25-11, 25-20, 25-13) defeat of SBC rival University of Louisiana at Lafayette (4-10, 1-3 SBC) at Hamilton Gymnasium on Sunday evening. The win improves the Pioneers to a perfect 10-0 at home.

 

“The positive thing for tonight is that we earned a lot of points, especially in set two,” said head coach Beth Kuwata. “Even though we let them back in a few times, we were able to get back into our usual rhythm. We’ve been stressing to our setters to distribute the ball more evenly among our hitters and I feel that tonight was the best we’ve ever done in that area.”

 

Junior Emmy Davidsmeyer (Colorado Springs, Colo.) paced the Pioneers with 12 kills on 19 total attacks and no errors for a .632 hitting percentage. The right-side hitter also dished out six assists, six digs and one block assist for the Pioneers.

 

“I think Clare did a great job tonight of spreading the ball around, making it easier for us to get some great scoring opportunities,” Davidsmeyer said. “I’m happy with the distribution that I got and I owe a lot of credit to my teammates for putting me into position to finish well. We are all very excited about being undefeated because it means a great deal to us to protect our home court. We are especially grateful to the fans who come out to each of our matches to support us.”

 

Also finishing in double-digit kills was senior Holly Benson (Colorado Springs, Colo.) with 10 on 21 total attacks for a .333 hitting percentage. The outside hitter also contributed on the defensive side of the net with 15 digs and two block assists.  Setter Clare Maxwell (Western Springs, Ill.) finished with her 14th 30+ assist match of the season as she dished out 38 assists on the night.

 

Defensively, three Pioneers tallied double-digit dig performances as freshman Jordan Raines (Coppell, Texas) and Benson finished with 15 each and sophomore libero Kacie Wikierak (Crystal Lake, Ill.) added 14. As a team, the Pioneers out-blocked and out-dug the Ragin Cajuns 10-6 and 57-40.

 

After taking the first set 25-11, the Pioneers came out ready to dominate in set two and proved they meant business by starting on a 8-0 run on serves by Raines. The run included kills by Benson, Maxwell and senior Kerry Porter (Western Springs, Ill.).

 

However, the Ragin Cajuns battled right back, going on a run of their own to eventually tie the score at 20 all. Feeling the momentum start sift in favor of ULL, the Pioneers regrouped and rattled off the final five points of the set that included kills by Davidsmeyer, Porter and Raines.

 

The third set began much closer than the first two as both teams exchanged points early. With the score tied at 5-5, the Pioneers grabbed the momentum and the advantage as Davidsmeyer sealed the next two points to take a 7-5 lead. Denver continue to pull away from the Ragin Cajuns throughout the set as the Pioneer hitters effectively spread out the ULL defense.

 

With the score 14-11 in favor of Denver, the Pioneers began their final run as they strung together an 11-2 run to close out the set and seal their 10th straight win at home.

 

The Pioneers will return to action this Friday and Saturday as they head to South Florida to take on Florida International on Oct. 10 and Florida Atlantic on Oct. 11. Both matches are schedule to begin at 5 p.m. (MT).

 

 

- PIONEERS -