Box Score

Fresno, CA -- The Academy of Art University volleyball team continued a trend that treated fans to both sides of the coin on Wednesday night, dominating the first set behind some extremely efficient volleyball but unable to sustain that through the rest of the match, eventually falling in four sets to Fresno Pacific (21-25, 25-13, 25-14, 25-21). Melissa Brum had 17 kills to lead the Knights, while Emily Papale surpassed the 300-kill mark in her freshman campaign in the loss.

"We played great volleyball in the first set and applied a lot of the things we've been working on in practice," said head coach Ed Jackson. "FPU became more aggressive from the service line putting pressure on us. We broke down defensively in the third and fourth set.  Melissa Brum was steady for us tonight, and so with Emily Papale."

The Urban Knights continued to put up some of their strongest play in the first set, hitting .286 and getting 16 kills, 14 from their combination of Papale and Brum, who had seven kills apiece. The game was tight, with FPU leading 16-15, but the Knights took a 19-16 lead on back-to-back kills from Papale and just kept on going, as Brum went back-to-back later on to make it 23-19. Brum would end up getting the final four kills of the set to put the Urban Knights up 1-0.

But the Sunbirds defended their home court from there on out, rallying on a 9-0 run to take the lead in the second set. The Knights would close to 16-10, but another run by FPU made it 21-11, and a service error from ART U handed them the set to equalize at 1-1. The same was said for the third set, when Fresno Pacific jumped out to a 6-0 lead and then again had a five-point run to make it 19-11, eventually winning 25-14 on back-to-back kills from Lyndsie Petersen.

In the third set, the Urban Knights battled back and forth, as the game was tied at 13-13 on a kill from senior Caitlin Boring. But Fresno Pacific retook control thanks to three straight aces, going ahead 19-13. Academy of Art clawed their way back into it, cutting the lead to 22-18, and then with the backs as far against the wall as they could be, down 24-18, rattled off three straight points, punctuated by a block from Brittany Ulmer and Brum that forced a FPU timeout. Unfortunately, that's where the road ended for ART U, as the Sunbirds blocked their way to the final point and the victory.

Academy of Art was led by Brum, who led all hitters with her 17 kills on a .378 hitting percentage. Papale added 14, while Rachael Smith had 43 assists. Fresno Pacific was led by Rupia Inck (15 kills), followed by Rebecca Waller (13 kills) and Jessie Alcorn (10 kills). As a team, the Sunbirds outhit the Knights .400 to .257. ART U will finish up the year on Friday night against Dominican at 6:00 PM.