Box Score
Photo Gallery (images by Meg Williams)
San Francisco, CA -- In Friday night's matchup against Cal Baptist, the Academy of Art women's volleyball team looked out of sync, unable to adjust to the high-flying Lancers attack until the final set, which they dropped but still pointed to as having encouraging moments.
Saturday's rematch between the two squads was similar, with CBU putting up big runs, but again with the Urban Knights waiting until their backs were against the wall to show some signs of life. Unfortunately, volleyball is an unforgiving game, and if you come to the party late, sometimes even the most spirited of efforts can fall short, and the Knights dropped the match in three sets, losing 18-25, 13-25, 23-25.
"It's something we've been looking to bring out in everyone, to play aggressively," head coach Allison Magner said. "It seems that we have some kids that go out there hesitant, for whatever reason, and as coaches we have to figure out why and continue to push through that."
The first set was tied 6-6 before the Lancers went on a 6-0 run. The Knights kept it close but a 4-0 run to put Cal Baptist up 21-14 proved to be enough to take game one. After outside hitter Ingrid Carmona romped for 16 kills and a .353 hitting percentage on Friday, the Knights kept her relatively contained, rotating blockers better and only allowing 12 kills on Saturday, dropping Carmona's hitting percentage by over 100 points to .233 in the process.
The second set started out well for the Urban Knights, going up 4-2 on a kill by Leinani Keanini. But then the Lancers went on an impressive 11-0 run to take a commanding 13-4 lead. The Knights were unable to recover in th second set, and Cal Baptist capped off their 25-13 set victory with a service ace by Chloe Ainsworth.
Again, it seemed like the Knights finally found what they needed in the third set, mounting a huge comeback before succumbing at long last to the Lancers. Down 17-9, the Knights battled all the way back to 17-16 on five straight attack errors by Cal Baptist, including a huge block on 6'4 Jelena Dragovic by freshman Ka'ena Kaina. A kill by Keanini brought the Knights within one at 23-22, and again by Keanini to make it 24-23, but the Lancers put it away to take the set and match despite the furious Knights comeback.
"We decided to start playing volleyball," Magner said. "We need to understand what it feels like to play that aggressively for a whole game. I don't know why we wait until the very last minute, when it comes to the wire, but we show moments of greatness and have to understand how to sustain that."
Magner has been tinkering with the lineup all year, and in the first match threw the kitchen sink at the Lancers. On Saturday, however, she stayed much more consistent, using the same seven players for a majority of the match. One change that has seemed to stick is the return of Melissa Cheng to the starting setter position.
"Melissa is in there for her leadership," Magner said. "That girl has beautiful hands, and we've been working with her on some other things off the court, and her leadership has made a tremendous difference both yesterday and today."
The Knights capped off a tough week, playing four matches in six days, and have another match next Tuesday against Grand Canyon. The coach maintains that her squad is well-prepared, and even in the midst of a losing streak there can be silver linings.
"I would say they were more tired mentally than physically," Coach Magner said. "However, it's great because it's preparing us for a very long road trip to Hawaii. Ten days, six matches, and we'd better learn what it is that we need to do quickly and carry that over onto the court. And we will."
