Box Score

San Rafael, CA -- Friday night wasn't the season finale the Academy of Art University was hoping for, but they still had a lot of positives to look back at in the 2013 campaign after falling to Dominican University 3-1 (25-12, 25-19, 27-29, 25-15). On the positive side, the matchup continued the trend of freshman Emily Papale leading the team in kills, as her 15 kills led the Urban Knights on the attack.

Dominican (11-18, 8-11 PacWest)  jumped out to an early lead in the first set, taking an 8-1 lead in a set that they would put up a .381 hitting percentage. The Urban Knights battled back to as close as 12-6, but the Penguins stayed one step ahead the rest of the way, finishing the set on a four-point run to go up 1-0.

The second set was closer in the beginning, as the Knights got a four-point run of their own, including back-to-back kills from Papale, to tie it at 10-10. It continued to go back and forth, with the teams alternating kills on seven straight sideouts, with ART U tying it at 15-15. It was still tied at 17-17, but then the Penguins finished the set on an 8-2 run to put the Knights on the ropes.

ART U got the third set back in their column, but it wasn't without a fight. They were down 13-9 and in danger of a sweep, but got a kill from Brittany Ulmer to get the ball back. Ulmer went back to serve, and with her feeding it in, the Urban Knights rattled off seven straight kills, burning both Dominican timeouts in the process and punctuated by strong play from Papale and sophomore Karly DaRosa.

Academy of Art brought it all the way to match point at 24-19, but then it was Dominican who came back from the brink, tying the game on back-to-back kills from Jessica Jones. The teams alternated from there, with the Knights fighting off a match point at 26-25 to continue fighting on. After a final tie at 27-27, the Urban Knights got a kill from Papale and then a block from DaRosa, giving them the set win.

The fourth set, however, did not go their way, as Dominican scored eight straight points to open up an early 12-4 lead. After the Knights got one back, they strung together six more points in a row to take an 18-5 advantage. The Knights started to claw their way back into it, closing the gap to 21-11, but it was for naught, as a kill from Amanda Wasko finished off the set and the match.

Papale led ART U with 15 kills, while Ulmer added eight kills and three total blocks. In her final game as an Urban Knight, Caitlin Boring notched eight kills as well on a .294 hitting percentage, also with three blocks. Jessica Jones led all scorers with 22 kills, while Wasko had 15 kills.

For the Knights, 2013 was a big step forward from 2012, as head coach Ed Jackson improved many categories across the board in his second year at the helm. They'll look forward to continuing that upward trajectory heading into next season.