Box Score
San Francisco, CA -- After breaking out of their losing streak against Chaminade on Wednesday, the Academy of Art University volleyball team continued to roll against their Hawaiian counterparts, handing previously undefeated Hawaii Pacific University their first PacWest loss in a five set battle on Thursday night. The Urban Knights were down two sets to one, but behind a 20-20 effort from freshman Melissa Brum and a new assists record from sophomore Rachael Smith, the Knights won the last two sets to come away victorious.


The Sea Warriors (11-4, 5-1 PacWest) came into San Francisco undefeated in conference play after dismantling Holy Names in a three set sweep only last night to run their PacWest record to 5-0, but hit a brick wall in the first set against ART U. The Urban Knights (6-8, 2-4 PacWest) actually trailed in the first set, down 7-4 early, but came back to tie the game at 10-10 on back-to-back kills by Caitlin Boring. After another tie at 11-11, the Knights went on a 7-2 run, stretching the lead to 18-13 and eventually getting a big block and forcing an error to win the set 25-19. They have now won the opening set in nine of their 14 matches this year, and in all six of their wins.

"It just shows the capabilities of our team and our ability to perform at a high level. It was a great win for us against a really good Hawaii Pacific team," said head coach Ed Jackson. "It  shows the fight in our team and we're really starting to get that concept down of every single rally, every single point, we're going for it, all the way from start to finish. And it showed tonight, that's how we outlasted them and won in five sets."

The second set was another trip down the comeback trail for the Knights, who at one point were down 17-10. Later, trailing 20-13, a trio of errors followed by a kill from Emily Papale brought the Knights within three, but HPU brought it all the way out to set point at 24-20. With the set on the line, Brum took the set and got the kill, followed by an ace from Brittany Ulmer and a block from Brum and Lindsay Elgin to make it 24-23. Elgin came back with another kill, and then she and Caitlin Boring got another big block to make it a 25-24 ART U advantage. Then the two teams started trading points, with ART U getting to the set point twice, but HPU took advantage of the mistakes, eventually winning 29-27.

Hawaii Pacific would win the third set as well, breaking out of a 7-7 tie and never look back, staving off multiple ART U comeback attempts. The Urban Knights were never able to tie it back up, though, and were as close as 22-21 before Samantha Rummans sandwiched a pair of kills around one from Haley Doerfler to give the Sea Warriors a 2-1 advantage with the 25-21 victory.

But the fight that we have seen all year from the Knights picked back up, and they kept on stoking the fire. They reversed the score in the fourth set, another see-saw battle with a tie as late as 18-18, and jumped out of that score to an eventual 22-18 score on an ace from Papale. Preventing a big comeback, Ulmer made it 23-19, Elgin took it to set point at 24-19, and finally Brum nailed it down with a kill at 25-21 to send it to a deciding fifth set.

The Sea Warriors grew first blood, but with the score tied 2-2, Jordan Cotton went back to serve, acing her first attempt. After an error on HPU, Brum had back-to-back kills to make it 6-2, and the Knights led eventually 8-5 heading into the break. Hawaii Pacific made the decision to extend the halfway break with a timeout, and out of it the Knights seemed ready to go, getting a pair of points to make it 10-7 and forcing another timeout. Another ace and then a kill by Ulmer made it 12-7, and the Knights had it well in hand. After a service error and then a rotation error, the Knights were at match point when none other than Melissa Brum flew in for the final kill.

Brum led the Urban Knights with 23 kills, an ART U freshman record, on a .291 hitting percentage, and also added 21 digs. Papale had 15 kills, while Caitlin Boring put up 13 kills of her own. Rachael Smith set a new single-match assists record with 63 sets, breaking the previous record of 59 set four years ago to the day by Melissa Cheng. Samantha Rummans led the way for HPU with 16 kills, while Kasey Thompson and Pomai Recca each had 11.

"I'm pretty exhausted from that long of a match but that's how it's going to be," said Jackson. "We have to just anticipate that every night. With the quality teams in our conference, every point is a fight. To get all the way through, from one to 25, you have to put the same amount of intensity into everything that you do. I think we're all real happy, but we know its just one more match on our schedule. We've got another one on Monday against UH Hilo, and we've got practice first thing tomorrow morning at 8:15, so we're gonna be there. We're going to go to bed and enjoy this win and come back and get after it tomorrow."

Academy of Art also received the PacWest Community Engagement Award in between sets, which was presented by PacWest Conference Commissioner Bob Hogue, who was in attendance to present the award to the Urban Knights for the second straight year. The Urban Knights will wrap up the homestand on Monday night against UH Hilo.