Box Score
San Francisco, CA -- For the third straight match the Academy of Art University women's volleyball team faced an opposing team from Hawaii. For the third straight match the Urban Knights won the first set but subsequently dropped the second. And for the third straight match the Knights would rebound and come away victorious, finishing off a sweep of their three-game homestand and building momentum into a tough road trip, defeating UH Hilo 3-1 (25-19, 25-27, 25-14, 25-18).

The Urban Knights used a balanced attack, getting four players into double figures in kills on the night. That started out with freshman Melissa Brum, who got seven kills in the first set , including the last two, to make it a 25-19 set win and give ART U an early advantage. The Vulcans reclaimed the second set after the Knights came back to tie the match at 23-23 and then go ahead with set point at 24-23. But back-to-back kills from Kyndra Trevino-Scott and Allee Johnson evened the odds at 1-1.

It was all Knights from there, however, as ART U got a kill from Brittany Ulmer to get on the board down 3-1. Ulmer would then serve nine times, notching two aces and pushing Academy of Art out to a 9-4 lead. They wouldn't relinquish that margin, expanding it on another that was started by Brum, who then served five times to make it 15-7. Brum made it a 10-point lead at 21-11 to force a timeout by Hilo, and then Emily Papale got in on the action to finish it off at 25-14 with a cross-court kill.

The last set seemed to be in the bag for the Knights, but UH Hilo clawed their way back into it. With setter Rachael Smith serving, the Knights took the game from an 8-4 margin all the way to 13-4, and would go up 20-11 on a kill from Smith, who was versatile all night and deadly on the dump. That was when Hilo made their run, cutting the lead to 20-14 and then again to 24-18 before Papale was set up for another kill to end the match.

Brum led the Knights with 16 kills and also added 11 digs. ART U got big numbers from their middles, as Lindsay Elgin contributed 14 kills on a .480 hitting percentage and Caitlin Boring had 12 kills on a .379 hitting percentage. Papale had 14 kills, while Smith had six kills to go along with her 14 digs and 57 assists, her third straight game with over 50 sets. Junior libero Kanoe Irvine was outstanding on defense as well, setting a single-match record with 36 digs. Marley Strand-Nicolaisen led the Vulcans with 17 kills while Sienna Davis has 35 assists.

ART U will take the momentum from their homestand and take it on the road, playing three matches in three days against Point Loma, Azusa Pacific, and California Baptist on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this week.