Box Score Sun peeking in on a little @artuvolleyball warm-up before tonight's match vs. @fpusunbirds #ARTUon2 View on Instagram
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San Francisco, CA – In a Wednesday night battle of PacWest Conference opponents, ART U rallied back from a 2-0 deficit to take the third set, but Fresno Pacific ended up prevailing 3-1. The sophomore tandem of
Melissa Brum and
Emily Papale each had double-doubles for the Urban Knights inside Kezar Pavilion.
Academy of Art started off strong with junior
Rachael Smith getting her side's first kill and senior
Brittany Ulmer backing that up with a pair of service aces for a 4-0 lead. The match soon evened out as the teams found themselves tied 9-9 at the start of a three-point run by FPU which gave them an advantage they would hold to 19-19. ART U stayed close with kills by junior
Isabel Emrich, Papale, and Ulmer down the stretch. From that tie, however, the Sunbirds pushed ahead to win 25-21.
Like the opening set, the second frame saw the Knights go ahead 4-1 on kills by freshman
Margaret Winkler and Brum. Unfortunately, the visitors responded with a 10-2 surge to go up 12-7. The squads traded points until another run by Fresno Pacific, this one 7-2, created the necessary separation for a 25-16 victory and a two-set margin.
Out of the locker room into set three, Academy of Art fell behind 4-2, went up 6-4, dropped down 8-6, then settled on 11-11. From there, ART U caught fire for eight of the next 10 points including a kill and service ace from Papale. Despite being up 19-13, the Knights could not coast the rest of the way as the Sunbirds came all the way back with an 8-1 rebuttal that even saw them go ahead by a point. Academy of Art, however, sealed a 25-22 third set victory on a pair of attack errors sandwiching Papale's kill.
Fresno Pacific got ahead 6-2 to start set four and never looked back, maintaining the lead to 14-9 and then reeling off nine straight for a 22-9 score. Though ART U fought off three match points, FPU held on for the 25-14 set win and a 3-1 match victory.
The Urban Knights are now 8-10 overall and 3-7 in PacWest play. Senior
Kanoe Irvine led with a team-high 28 digs while Brum added her 16th double-double in 18 matches by way of 11 kills and 16 digs. Papale finished with a double-double as well, posting 10 kills and 13 digs. Smith tallied a match-high 31 assists.
Academy of Art next heads to Oakland for its first PacWest matchup with Holy Names this Friday, Oct. 17. First serve is set for 7:00 PM.
