WASHINGTON, D.C. - The University of Denver volleyball team closed out the 2012 Service Academy Challenge with a 3-1 (24-26, 25-10, 25-12, 25-16) win over Navy and a 3-0 (28-26, 25-18, 25-13) sweep of Army on Saturday afternoon from the Pentagon Athletic Complex inside the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

The wins improve the Pioneers to 6-3 on the season.

"It was a good day for us," said head coach Jesse Mahoney. "We played two solid teams. Anytime you play the service academy teams, you know you're going to be playing very disciplined teams. I thought we got better as the day went on. In our match against Navy, we got an opportunity to work on some of our systems. In our match against Army, you could see that we were a bit more comfortable."

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Senior Faimie Kingsley (Brooklyn, N.Y.) led the Pioneers for the day with 23 kills, a .524 hitting percentage and nine blocks, while junior Cassie Ronda (Chandler, Ariz.) finished with 22 kills. Junior Colleen King (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) posted 20 kills and freshman Michele Swope (Orlando, Fla.) tallied 17 kills and 15 digs.

Sophomore setter Frances Carroll (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) recorded 72 assists through the two matches and senior Lyndi Johnson (Flower Mound, Texas) finished with 43 digs.

In the Pioneers' first match of the day, Kingsley and Ronda led the way with 14 kills each, while King added 11 kills. Carroll finished with a career-high 38 assists, while Johnson posted 28 digs. Kingsley led the Pioneers with six blocks and Johnson tied her career high with three service aces.

Carolyn Ewert led Navy with 12 kills, Eleanor Derouin finished with 19 assists and Christy Rapp posted 16 digs.

After dropping the first set 26-24 to the Midshipmen, the Pioneers opened the second set on a 10-5 run before Navy called timeout. Following the break, Denver continued to tack points on the board with an 8-3, forcing Navy to call its second timeout of the set. Denver continued to put the pressure on coming out of the timeout, closing out the set on a 7-2 run (25-10) to tie the match at 1-1.

Denver used four kills from Ronda and three kills from junior Brea Muhle (Columbus, Neb.) and Kingsley to take the third set 25-12 and the followed it up with five kills from Kingsley and four kills from Ronda and King to take the fourth set 25-16.

Swope led the way in the Pioneers' sweep of Army with 11 kills, while King and Kingsley finished with nine kills each. Carroll posted 34 assists and 10 digs, while Johnson and Swope finished with 15 and 11 digs, respectively.

The Pioneers opened the second match of the day in a tightly contested set as both teams fought down to the wire. With the score tied at 19, Army grabbed the next two points off a Pioneer miscue and a kill. However, Denver used two kills by Swope, a kill by Kingsley and a service ace by Muhle to take a 23-22 advantage, forcing Army to take a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Pioneers grabbed the next point off an ace by Carroll, but Army answered with three straight points to take a 25-24 lead, forcing Denver to call its final timeout

Denver tied it at 25 on the next play and then took a 26-25 lead off a kill from King. Army tied it for the final time at 26 before a kill by Kingsley and an Army attack error seals the opening set win for the Pioneers. Denver continued its momentum into the final two sets of the match, taking the second set 25-18 and the third set 25-13.

The Pioneers open their first season in the Western Athletic Conference this Thursday, Sept. 13 against Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. The match is slated to begin at 8 p.m. MT.

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