CHICAGO, Ill. The University of Denver volleyball team battled to a 3-2 (25-22, 23-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-10) victory over Ball State (2-7) on Friday evening in the opening match of the DePaul Invitational at McGrath Arena. The win improves the Pioneers to 6-1 on the season, making it the best start to a season in program history for Denver.

 

“Tonight’s match was a hard-fought battle for both teams,” said head coach Beth Kuwata. “It is important that we won, but it is even more important that we battled to deserve the win. In the past we haven’t done so well in five set matches so tonight’s effort proved that our team is maturing. We dug in and raised our level of play. It was a total team effort on both sides tonight.”

 

Senior Holly Benson (Colorado Springs, Colo.) finished with a season- and team-high 18 kills, while juniors Emmy Davidsmeyer (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Clare Maxwell (Western Springs, Ill.) rounded out the double-figure kills with 10 apiece. Maxwell also finished with her second 40+ assist performance of the season as she finished with 44, one shy of her season-high.

 

On the defensive side, libero Kacie Wikierak (So., Crystal Lake, Ill.) finished with 23 digs, while Davidsmeyer and senior Jacqueline Paul (Albuquerque, N.M.) notched seven blocks apiece. As a team, the Pioneers out blocked Ball State 24-18 for the match. On the season, Denver has now tallied 51 total blocks compared to its opponents’ 41.

 

Denver’s win extends its current streak to five matches, a feat that began on Aug. 30 as the Pioneers closed out the 2008 Hilton Classic in Fort Collins, Colo., with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-21) defeat of the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Pioneers’ previous season-best starts of 5-1 came during the 1993 season, under head coach Jerrie McGahan, and in 2003 under Kuwata.

 

Denver continues on Saturday morning with a 9 a.m. (MT) match against UTSA and a 6:30 p.m. (MT) match against DePaul to close out the tournament. The Pioneers have never faced UTSA and are 1-0 against DePaul.

 

Live Stats will be offered for all matches during the DePaul Invitational and can be viewed by clicking the Live Stats icon on the volleyball schedule on the Denver Pioneers’ Web site. Denver’s match against UTSA on Saturday will be webcasted live from McGrath Arena. To view the game via the webcast, fans either have a subscription or purchase a single-game subscription through the Pioneer Web site.

 

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