DENVER- The University of Denver volleyball team will close out their non-conference schedule this weekend at the Thin Air Challenge featuring matchups against Air Force, Santa Clara and Montana over the three-day event. 

The Pios will open the Thin Air Challenge at Air Force followed by consecutive matches on their home court.

Denver Recap: DU is coming off a 1-2 weekend at the Ameritas Players Challenge in Lincoln, Neb. The Crimson and Gold opened the weekend with a 3-2 victory over LMU before falling to no. 2 Nebraska (3-0) and High Point (3-0) dropping them to 6-3 overall. The Pios offense is led by kill-leader Lydia Bartalo who averages 3.16 kills per set while setter Ellie Anderson leads the team with an average of 4.73 assists per set. Defensively Denver averages 1.8 blocks per set led by freshman Brianna Green who has recorded a total of 38 through nine matches while junior libero Macy Carrabine leads the Pios with 90 digs on the season.

Denver vs. Air Force
    Thrs., Sep. 19, 2019 •  6:30 p.m. MT 
    Location: Colorado Springs, Colo.
    Overall: 8-5 | Last Meeting: Sep. 5, 2015 (W, 3-1)
Scouting Air Force: Entering the three-day affair with a 2-7 record, the Falcons are coming off a three-loss weekend at the Amy Svoboda Memorial Classic dropping matches to UC Irvine, Loyola Chicago and Virginia Tech. AF has an offense led by Andi Ahlers who looks to build off a 35-assist and 12 dig performance against UC Irvine. As a team, Air Force averages 11.63 kills per set and 12.91.
Last Meeting: This will be the 13^th matchup between the Falcons and the Pioneers. Denver has won eight of the 13 matches, the most recent one coming in 2015 when the Pios took the match 3-1.

Denver vs. Santa Clara
    Thrs., Sep. 20, 2019 •  6 p.m. MT 
    Location: Denver Colo.
    Overall: 0-2 | Last Meeting: Sep. 21, 2002 (L, 3-0)
Scouting Santa Clara: The Broncos enter the Thin Air Challenge with an 8-2 record this year. Santa Clara averages 13.50 kills per set with a hitting percentage of .285. Defensively junior Gretchen Reinert leads the Broncos with 142 digs through ten matches while freshman Julia Sangiacomo leads the offense with 122 kills on the year.
Last Meeting: This will be just the third meeting between the two teams. The Pioneers have dropped both of the previous matches with the most recent one coming 17 years ago on September 21, 2002 when SCU ran away with a 3-0 victory.

Denver vs. Montana
    Sat., Sep. 21, 2019 •  6 p.m. MT 
    Location: Denver Colo.
    Overall: 2-0 | Last Meeting: Sep. 21, 2002 (W, 3-1)
Scouting Montana: The Grizzlies travel to Colorado after an 0-8 start to their season. They're coming off a two-loss weekend following losses to CSU Bakersfield and UTEP at the Farmers State Bank Invitational. Averaging 2.27 kills per set, freshman Amethyst Harper leads the Montana offense with 50 kills while Janna Grimsrud leads the defense with 25 blocks through eight matches.
Last Meeting: Saturday's match will be the third meeting between the two teams. The Pios enter the third meeting holding a 2-0 series record following their 3-1 defeat of the Grizzlies on September 19^th, 2015.

DENVER TICKET OFFICE:
Tickets for volleyball games during the 2019 season are on sale now and can be purchased here.

SHOP PIONEERS:
Get dressed for Game Day! Get your Pioneers gear at ShopPioneers.com, the official online store of University of Denver Athletics.
 
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