In Western Athletic Conference (WAC) play this week, the Pioneers fell to Utah State on Thursday before topping San Jose State on Saturday.
With only three matches remaining in the regular season, Denver’s overall record is now 15-11 and 8-7 in the WAC.
Thursday’s match against Utah State was a hard-fought battle which the Pioneers ended up losing 3-2 with game scores of 20-25, 16-25, 25-17, 25-23 and 12-15. Utah State is currently first in the WAC with a record of 14-2 and 19-7 overall.
“I think it was two different matches,” said Mahoney. “In the first two sets, Utah State was really good, and I don’t think we really showed up. We didn’t have very much energy, and it took us a little while to get going. After the break between the second and third, we came out energized and we stuck to the game plan.”
Senior Faimie Kingsley led the team with 17 kills, while junior Colleen King added 10 kills and eight blocks. Junior Brea Muhle led the team in blocks with 10 and ended with seven kills.
“We passed really well, and we put a lot of effort into the match,” said Mahoney. “We came up short in set five, but I was proud of my team for making it to that fifth set. It was a glimpse of the team that we’ve been and we can be this year; we just need to do it for longer stretches.”
Running a 5-1 offense, sophomore setter Frances Carroll ended up with 48 assists as the sole setter.
“Frances Carroll did a great job running the offense in a 5-1,” said Mahoney.
On the defensive side, senior libero Lyndi Johnson and sophomore Kate Acker each had 15 digs. Freshman Michele Swope added 12 digs in addition to her three assists.
For the Aggies, Shay Sorensen, Josselyn White and Elle Brainard led the team with 13, 11 and 10 kills, respectively.
The Crimson and Gold finished strong this week with a sweep of San Jose State on Saturday, topping them 25-22, 25-18 and 25-20.
“It was a good match for us,” said Mahoney. “This was one of our better defensive matches. We stuck to our game plan and our scouting report to a tee, which is as good as we’ve done all year. That really helped us to block and defend at a really high level.”
Kingsley again led the team with eight blocks, while Swope contributed four. Acker ended up with 18 digs, while Johnson tallied eight.
King had 15 kills, followed by Kingsley and Swope with nine and seven, respectively. Carroll ended the night with 35 assists.
On the other side of the net, Mary Alice O’Reilly and Krysta Miller had nine kills each for the Spartans.
The next contests for the Pioneers will be Thursday and Saturday as they travel to Texas to face Texas-San Antonio and Texas State. Only three matches remain before the Western Athletic Conference tournament, which takes place Nov. 19-21 in San Antonio, Texas.
