Denver Drops 3-0 Road-Decision to South Dakota

Box Score

VERMILLION, S.D. – The University of Denver volleyball team dropped its first conference match of the season, falling 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 26-24) to South Dakota on Friday evening at the Dakota Dome in Vermillion, S.D. The loss drops the Pioneers to 10-8 on the season, 4-1 in The Summit League play, while South Dakota improves to 14-6 overall, 5-0 in league play.

“It was a competitive match and I’m proud of our team’s effort,” said head coach Jesse Mahoney. “We played well enough in the side-out game to win the match, but we couldn’t defend well enough for large parts of each set and played catch-up too often. We will regroup this week and continue to improve. This is the type of match we will need to win to attain our goals this season.”

Senior Colleen King (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) led the way with 11 kills for the Pioneers, while also notching 20 assists, nine digs and four blocks. Sophomore Sarah Schmid (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) finished with eight kills and team-best .467 hitting percentage to go along with a team-leading six blocks.

Sophomore setter Tori Moons (Visalia, Calif.) also tallied 20 assists and five digs, while junior libero Kate Acker (Waukesha, Wis.) recorded 12 digs.

Kendall Kritenbrink led the Coyotes with 16 kills, while setter Tori Kroll finished with 40 assists.

The Coyotes pounced first to start the first set, taking a 16-10 lead before the Pioneers’ called timeout to regroup. Denver then rattled off four straight points to cut the lead to 16-14, before the Coyotes responded with a timeout. Denver battled to tie the set three times, but South Dakota closed out the set on a 4-0 run to seal a 25-21 win.

Action started tight in set two as both teams exchanged points early. The Coyotes began to pull away after the score was tied 7-7, as they strung together a 7-2 run to take a 14-9 lead. Denver answered with an 11-3 run to tie the set at 17-17. After both teams swapped points, the Coyotes began to pull away to eventually take the second set 25-22.

With a 2-0 lead in the match, South Dakota seemed to have everything under control in the third set, jumping out to an 18-9 lead early. However, the Pioneers came from behind to pull within one at 24-23, forcing a Coyotes’ timeout. The Pioneers tied it right coming out of the break off a block by freshman Moni Corrujedo (El Paso, Texas) and Schmid. However, South Dakota closed out the set on the next two possessions to seal the 3-0 win.

Denver returns home to host Omaha on Friday, Oct. 18 at Hamilton Gymnasium. First serve is slated for 7 p.m. and fans can catch the action live on Pioneer Vision. Action continues on Sunday, Oct. 20 against Western Illinois at 2 p.m.

Don’t miss out on Pioneer volleyball action this fall. Individual game tickets are on sale now. Fans interested in purchasing tickets can do so by phone at 303-871-2336, in person at the Richie Center box office or through DenverPioneers.com/tickets.

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