Game #1 Box Score
Game #2 Box Score

Seaside, CA -- A day after the Academy of Art University women's volleyball team notched their first two wins of the season, the Urban Knights continued to play great volleyball, but came up short in both of their Saturday matches to end the Otter Classic with an even 2-2 record. The Knights faced a University of Alaska Anchorage in the morning matchup that was coming off their third straight NCAA Tournament appearance, falling 3-0, and then played four close sets against #23-ranked Minnesota State University, Mankato in the afternoon game before being on the wrong end of a 3-1 loss.

"Competing against Alaska Anchorage and Minnesota State allows us to prepare for the better teams in our conference," said head coach Ed Jackson. "We love the challenge of competing against ranked opponents.  We already have had two other PacWest teams upset a nationally ranked opponent this weekend. We want to be the next to do just that."

In the Saturday opener, Alaska Anchorage (1-2) held the Knights in check on the attack, limiting ART U to a negative hitting percentage in the second and third set. On the other side of the ball, the Seawolves had two players with double-digit kills, as Julia Mackey had 15 kills and a .636 hitting percentage and Katelynn Zanders added 10 kills for UAA. For the Knights, sophomores Lindsay Elgin and Brittany Ulmer were active on both sides of the ball, each notching three total blocks.

The Urban Knights were in all three sets early, but big runs by the Seawolves gave them some space. Alaska Anchorage broke a 9-9 tie and used a 16-2 run in the second set, and then a 13-5 run in the third set to hand the Knights their first loss of the year.

"The morning match loss was combination of Alaska Anchorage playing some fantastic volleyball and us lacking a maximum effort from every player on our team," said Jackson. "I was proud of our team's ability to recover.  We played our best volleyball to date against Minnesota State."

The afternoon match was an extremely close one with Minnesota State, as all four sets were decided by four points or less. The Urban Knights rallied to take the first set from their ranked opponents by a score of 25-22. The second set went into extra time as the Mavericks took a 26-24 advantage to even it up at one set apiece. Then Minnesota State took the third and fourth sets by scores of 25-23 and 25-21, respectively, to end a day of heated competition.

Academy of Art's offense awakened in the afternoon, rebounding as three Knights got into double-digits for kills. Elgin had 10 kills and three total blocks and had a .500 hitting percentage for the day. Taylor Suchy had 17 kills to lead all players, and added in 14 digs, and Angela Heath also had a double-double with 15 kills and 12 digs. Freshman setter Rachael Smith had 42 assists on the day for ART U. 

"We've proven we can compete on a national scale," said Jackson. "We need to continue to stay engaged as a team and give a maximum effort from start to finish. Once we are able perform those keys to success consistently we are going to start winning the close games more often."

The Urban Knights will play another tournament next weekend, participating in the dual-hosted CSUEB/NDNU Tournament. On Friday, they'll face San Francisco State and host Cal State East Bay before taking on Humboldt State and Cal State Monterey Bay on Saturday.