San Francisco, CA – It was a memorable night inside Kezar Pavilion on Wednesday as two individual career-highs as well as one program record guided Academy of Art Volleyball to a 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-20, 27-25) win over UH Hilo. The Knights picked up their third PacWest Conference win behind 31 kills and 20 digs from sophomore Melissa Brum, 29 digs by sophomore Emily Papale, and a team digs record after fighting off four set points to finish off the fourth and the match.

The opening set favored the Vulcans early on as a 4-0 lead came off ART U mistakes, but the Knights quickly righted the ship with a 6-0 burst that included a pair of kills from PacWest Freshman of the Week Margaret Winkler. An evenly played set thereafter, the teams found themselves tied 15-15 before UH Hilo opened up a 22-18 lead and held on for the 25-20 victory.

Academy of Art quickly bounced back in the second set after being tied 5-5. In one of the longest runs of the season, ART U rattled off 9 unanswered points with junior Isabel Emrich and Papale going to work. Senior Kanoe Irvine ended the run with back-to-back service aces and the Knights were up 14-5. Hilo came back with a 6-2 push, but the damage had been done and Emrich's fourth kill of the set gave her squad the 25-22 win to equalize.

ART U went from down 3-2 to up 10-5 in the third frame thanks to continuous offense from Emrich, Papale, and senior Brittany Ulmer. The Knights held that lead with Brum's timely points and, when the Vulcans crept to within two at 18-16, Academy of Art dropped the hammer with a 5-0 run. Hilo still showed life with a 4-0 pushback, but Rachael Smith ended up setting Brum for the 25-20 finale.

Up 2-1 in sets, Academy of Art faced an early 10-4 deficit in the fourth. It did not last long, however, because the Knights delivered a 7-1 response that featured highlights from Emrich, Papale, Brum, and Ulmer. The two PacWest opponents traded points up to 20-20 where UH Hilo opened up a 24-20 margin and seemed poised to force a fifth set. That was not to be though as kills by Ulmer and Brum along with an attack error overcame four set points and eventually ART U achieved a tremendous feat to win 27-25 and earn the match victory.

The Urban Knights improve to 8-5 overall (3-2 in PacWest) with several career-highs on the roster. Brum's aforementioned new mark of 31 kills were supported by 20 digs for an impressive double-double, her 11th of the season. Brum was one of five players to collect 20+ digs on Wednesday as Papale's career-high 29 were joined by Irvine's 32, Emrich's 21, and 20 from Smith. Papale added 10 kills while Ulmer finished with 12 kills and Smith handed out 53 assists.

As a team, ART U posted 123 digs which bested the program's previous four-set record of 97 that came two years ago at Dominican.

Academy of Art is back in action at Kezar Pavilion tomorrow night when Hawaii Pacific comes in for a 7:30 PM start.