Box Score

San Rafael, CA -- The Academy of Art volleyball team played the last of three matches of the 2012 season against Golden Gate rivals Dominican University, and with the series tied at 1-1, both teams were looking for a victory on Friday night at the Conlan Rec Center. The Urban Knights fought hard, narrowly losing the first set and getting a resounding win in the second, but weren't able to force a deciding fifth set, falling to the Lady Penguins 22-25, 26-24, 15-25, and 17-25.

"Tonight was a disappointing loss," said head coach Ed Jackson. "Serve reception was difficult for us.  Without consistent serve reception we can't utilize our strengths as a team."

The Knights played another close one in the first set, taking a 2-0 lead but then seeing a 7-0 run by the Penguins. But ART U was able to respond, using short bursts to battle and then finally tie the game up again at 17-17 after two kills from Lindsay Elgin sandwiched around a kill from Angela Heath. Two straight Dominican errors later in the set tied it up again at 21-21, but then the Penguins were able to put the Knights away 25-22.

It was the Urban Knights turn in the second set to come back early, spotting DU a 3-0 advantage before scoring four in a row to take the lead. The two teams traded points before Dominican took a 10-7 lead, but then three straight kills from Elgin tied it up again. The set saw the Penguins take a 20-17 lead, but the Knights came out swinging again and retook a 22-20 lead before eventually getting kills from Rachel Smith and Brittany Ulmer to win the set 26-24.

The Penguins took a big lead in the third set, going up 7-2 before Elgin stopped the run. But then Dominican took off again, doubling their score to make it a 14-3 advantage. They carried that momentum to the third set win, trading points with the Knights, who continued to battle but couldn't make up the early deficit, falling 25-15. That spilled over into the final set, as the Knights were tied as late as 11-11 before a Penguins run of five straight points was followed by one of six straight to put it the match out of reach for ART U.

The Knights were led by Elgin, who had 16 kills to lead all players. Taylor Suchy and Caitlin Boring each had seven kills for ART U, while libero Janelle Burnett added 30 digs. Samantha Rains had 12 kills to lead Dominican. The Urban Knights will travel to the South Bay on Saturday for their first matchup of the year against Notre Dame de Namur.

"Lindsay provided some scoring for us tonight, but it's difficult to win with only one player making those kinds of contributions," said Jackson. "Whether it's NDNU or any other team, tough serving and consistent passing are important keys to our success. We are hopeful for a better performance tomorrow night."