Box Score

Fresno, CA -- The Urban Knights volleyball team was coming off a couple of big wins last week, and were on the verge of pulling one of the biggest upsets of the season after taking a 2-1 lead at the Fresno Pacific Special Events Center on Saturday night. But the #15-ranked Sunbirds came back, and in their first five-setter on their home court, staved off the Knights victory charge for a 3-2 ART U defeat. The Knights won the first and third sets, with the final scores being 25-17, 19-25, 25-22, 16-25, and 9-15.

The Urban Knights came out on a mission, taking the first point of the first set and building a 9-3 lead on one of the last undefeated teams in the conference. ART U took advantage of some sloppy play by the Sunbirds, who hit only .079 in the opener. FPU eventually closed the gap to a 20-17 margin, but a kill by Caitlin Boring started a 5-0 rub that sealed the set for Academy of Art and also handed the Sunbirds their first set loss of the season on their home court.

"I was proud of how our team started the match," said head coach Ed Jackson. "We implemented a solid game plan and the team did a great job putting pressure on them defensively.  Our effort on defense showed with them hitting .077 in the first set."

Fresno Pacific recovered in the second set, as the Knights got the first point again but fell behind after a 6-0 run by the Sunbirds. They put together another run that made it 12-4 but the Urban Knights continued to fight, eventually getting kills from Lindsay Elgin and Rachael Smith, as well as an ace by Janelle Burnett, that made it 21-17. But FPU held off the Knights to win 25-19 and even the match at 1-1.

The third set was a a see-saw battle, with FPU taking the first point but the Knights coming right back. The match stayed very close throughout, with 14 total ties in the set. The Knights came back from down 12-9 to take a 14-12 lead on back-to-back kills by Taylor Suchy before Fresno Pacific tied it up again and it was back to trading points. Then, with the match tied 22-22, Jackson took a timeout to settle his team. Coming out of the break, ART U got a big boost from Elgin, who started off the run with a kill and also sandwiched two blocks around an error by FPU to win the set for the Knights and give them a 2-1 advantage.

"You can credit [assistant coach Alanna Jackson] and our team with our improved ability out of time outs," said Jackson. "She is developing our offense and is applying her experience as All-Conference setter at the University of Nevada.  She communicates with our setter during time outs and puts a play together for our team to score."

The fourth set was also closely contended, as the two teams traded points with neither able to really take any big advantage. Then, after back-to-back kills from Suchy again made it 14-14, Fresno Pacific really turned up the heat, going on an 11-2 run the rest of the way to win the fourth and force a fifth set, the seventh five-set match for the Knights this year. Unfortunately for Academy of Art, the Sunbirds had that momentum from the fourth set carry into the tiebreaker, taking a 7-1 lead out of the gate and staving off the Knights attempts to chip away at the lead, eventually sealing the deal on a kill from Kathleen Anderson.

For the Knights, it was a loss but definitely an experience to take positives from, forcing a team that hadn't lost a match in over a month to five sets on their home floor. Elgin led the way for the Knights, notching 13 kills and only one error, good for a .480 hitting percentage, while also adding eight total blocks. Suchy had 11 kills and 13 digs, but took a lot of swings, putting up 50 attempts on the night. Fresno native Rachael Smith had 39 assists and added five total blocks of her own.

"We learned that we are improving and need to continue to work hard everyday," said Jackson. "We had a lot of fans from both teams come up to us after the match and tell us they enjoyed our effort and fight.  Even though we played some great volleyball tonight we are not satisfied with the result."

The Urban Knights will play three straight games in the Bay Area that do not take place on their home court. ART U will go to Oakland to face Holy Names on Oct. 17, then travel to San Rafael for their third match against Dominican on Oct. 19, before making their final stop in Belmont to face Notre Dame de Namur for the first time on Oct. 20.