WASHINGTON, D.C. - Led by a combined 25 kills from freshman Michele Swope (Orlando, Fla.) and junior Colleen King (Steamboat Spring, Colo.), the University of Denver volleyball team opened the 2012 Service Academy Challenge with a 3-1 (25-15, 25-18, 22-25, 25-15) win over The Citadel on Friday afternoon from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

The win improves the Pioneers to 4-3 on the season, while The Citadel falls to 0-7.

"It was a great experience to play in such a great venue," said head coach Jesse Mahoney. "Colleen and Michele really carried us this afternoon. We had an opportunity to see Bailey for the first time this season and experiment with some line-ups. We're still trying to find our best line-up and this weekend is the perfect opportunity to do that before we head into conference play."

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Along with her 15 kills, Swope also finished with eight digs and one block, while King posted two digs and three blocks to go along with her 10 kills. Also contributing for the Pioneers was redshirt sophomore Cassie Ronda (Chandler, Ariz.) with nine kills and senior Faimie Kingsley (Brooklyn, N.Y.) with seven kills.

Junior Brea Muhle (Columbus, Neb.) led the Pioneers' blocking efforts with five, while Kingsley posted three. Defensively, senior Lyndi Johnson (Flower Mound, Texas) and Kate Acker (Waukesha, Wis.) tallied 11 and 10 digs, respectively.

Splitting the setting duties throughout the match, sophomore Frances Carroll (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) finished with 32 assists, while sophomore Bailey Karst (Aurora, Colo.) tallied 13 assists.

Rachael Farrell led The Citadel with nine kills, while Ise d'Angelo finished with eight. Setter Mikaela Tracy finished with 22 assists and libero Emily Dalton tallied 14 digs.

The Pioneers return to action tomorrow against Navy at 7 a.m. MT. Due to a no-internet policy within the Pentagon, no live updates, stats or video will be available for the match.

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