CSU-Pueblo 3, Johnson & Wales 0

By Simone Peinkofer

The T-Wolves beat the Johnson and Wales Wildcats in three sets Friday night in a non-conference game at Massari Arena.

The ThunderWolves' win lifted their 2009 record to 5-9 while Johnson & Wales, an NAIA school from Denver, dropped to 0-11 on the season, and lost their 35th straight game.

At the beginning of the first set, both teams were equally strong, but the Wildcats did not get any chance to get back into the game. The T-Wolves got on a 15-7 run and totally dominated. There were too many discrepancies and inaccuracies in the Wildcats' game. And the weaknesses in the defense of the Wildcats made it easy for the ThunderWolves to win the first set 25-11.

The ThunderWolves did not give the Wildcats any chance to find their rhythm in the second set. After leading 9-2, the T-Wolves got unfocused, and too many balls got out, so that the guest team could catch up to 9-10.

T-Wolves head coach Chris Jonson admitted that the T-Wolves made mistakes.

"We needed to get more consistent", he said. Altogether, there was sparse flow in the game, and finally the T-Wolves won the set 25-19.

The third set started with more flow. Both teams had to fight hard for points. Jonson tried to get most of his reserves on the court, and therefore "there were some nerves tonight.  But we won as a team", he said.

After a score was tied at 15-15, the T-Wolves got back into their dominating role, but the Wildcats stayed close. Finally, the T-Wolves won the set 25-20.

Bernadette Pitre (So. Clifton, Colo), achieved nine kills, followed by Janae Heiser (So., Westminster, Colo.) with seven kills.

The ThunderWolves will return to the court Saturday night when they host the Mesa State Mavericks in an RMAC match at Massari Arena.