Box Score #1

San Francisco, CA --

The Academy of Art women's volleyball team took the floor last night against the Mills College Cyclones. The Urban Knights were able to keep their winning streak alive by beating Mills in four sets, 25-19, 29-31, 25-16, 25-16.

The Lady Knights dominated most of the match aside from losing the 2nd set by two points. Game one saw the Knights down early but they were able to rally to tie the game at 7 apiece. From that point on, the Knights pulled away and never looked back winning the set 25-19 on a kill from junior middle-blocker Heather Allen.

The second set was more evenly matched as the Cyclones were able to stick with the Knights, keeping the game to within one point for nearly the entire match. The set saw 11 lead-changes with four coming late in the game, however, the visitors were able to hold on and win by two, finishing the set 29-31.

Sets 3 and 4 were all Urban Knights as the home team won both by a score of 25-16.

For Mills, Loke Davis led the team with 10 kills, two solo blocks and one assisted block. Danielle Thurlow had a match-high 28 assists.

On the night for the Academy of Art, sophomore outside hitter KaUwila Lavea finished with a match-high 16 kills and had two solo blocks along with two assisted blocks while sophomore outside hitter Dan Yang chipped in 15 kills and two solo blocks. Freshman setters Olivia White and Alexandra Leja dished out 27 and 24 assists respectively. Jelena Jakovljevic and senior middle-blocker Levalasi Key each had one solo block and four assisted blocks for the Knights.

Saturday Oct 18

Box Score #2

The Knights defeated the visiting Embry-Riddle Eagles Saturday night in 5 sets (22-25, 18-25,17-25, 25-20,11-15). The victory was win number 15 for the Urban Knights who have proven to be a challenge for most of their competitors.

Although they lost the first set, the Knights dominated for the majority of the game. The Knights had a four-point lead and the momentum on a kill by freshman middle-blocker Angela Heath to bring the score to 18-14. The Eagles made a couple of great plays and the Urban Knights committed numerous attacking and service errors to lose the match on an 11-4 run by the Eagles.

The Knights were tested again in Game 2 but were able to pull away late in the set to win 25-18. The Eagles kept to within two points of the Urban Knights for a majority of the game until a kill by Dan Yang sparked the Knights and boosted their intensity on the floor. The final seven points were earned off a kill and a block by Dan Yang and Levalasi Key, an assisted block from Jelena Jakovljevic and Angela Heath with Heath adding one more solo block, and freshman setter Alexandra Leja ended the match with an ace.

The third set was much like the 2nd in that the Eagles were able to keep within close range of the Knights until late in the set when the Knights pulled away to win 25-17.

The fourth set saw the Embry-Riddle Eagles capitalize on numerous attacking errors committed by the Knights. At 15-12, the Eagles scored on a kill by Isabela Lachowski and then took the lead on four straight Knights attacking errors. At 20-24, Levalasi Key was blocked by Gina Conley and the next play saw Laura DeGeroge get a kill with the assist coming from Jessica Stehle to end the game at 20-25 in favor of the Eagles.

The fifth and final set was dominated by the Academy of Art Urban Knights. With the win the Urban Knights improve to 15-6 while the Embry-Riddle Eagles drop to 7-16.

"We needed a game like this to bring us back to reality," Assistant Coach Ali Magner said after the game. "Games like these show them that they need to focus on every opponent and take everyone we play seriously." 

For the Knights, KaUwila Lavea and Dan Yang led the evening for the Knights with 19 and 17 kills respectively.  As a team, they boasted 16 team blocks, Levalasi Key and Jelena Jakovljevic led the charge for the Knights as they each posted eight assisted blocks and Key added a pair solo blocks. Olivia White had 27 assists while Alexandra Leja added 26 assists and four aces. For Embry-Riddle Isabela Lachowski had a match high 20 kills and five aces while Gina Conley chipped in with 13 kills, 15 digs two solo blocks, and two assisted blocks. Jessica Stehle also recorded a match-high 39 assists.

The Knights return to the floor Oct 22 for a road contest as they take on the Lady Penguins of Dominican University at Conlan Center Gym at 5pm.