Box Score San Francisco, CA – Facing Notre Dame de Namur for the second time in 2014, Academy of Art University came away with a 3-0 sweep (27-25, 25-19, 25-14) for its 10th victory of the year. Steadily improving their game as the sets progressed, ART U was guided by a balanced attack (four Knights combined for 43 kills) and eight team blocks in the win.
The opening set was a tight battle with neither side establishing more than a two-point advantage until ART U went up 18-15 on sophomore
Melissa Brum's kill. A 4-1 response by the Argos tied it 19-19 and the back-and-forth action continued. Sophomore
Emily Papale offered a service ace to force set point at 24-23, but NDNU answered the call and soon the set was tied 25-25. From there, junior
Rachael Smith sent back-to-back balls to Brum for the kills to end it 27-25.
It was all ART U early in the second set as the Knights jumped out to a 7-2 lead and soon were up 11-4 on consecutive points from seniors
Kanoe Irvine (service ace) and
Brittany Ulmer (kill). Academy of Art forced another Notre Dame de Namur timeout after two more Brum kills finished off a quick 6-3 push. Though NDNU closed the gap to four at 18-14, ART U relied on production from a variety of places including junior
Isabel Emrich and eventually a put-away by Ulmer ended it 25-19.
Set three was even quicker than the second with three straight kills by Brum coming during a 10-3 start to the frame. The dominant beginning rolled through to a 15-5 advantage midway through following consecutive kills by Papale and Emrich as well as two errors by the Argos. Notre Dame de Namur showed some life thereafter, but the Knights had created a relatively secure margin at 20-10 on Brum's kill, leading to the 25-14 final.
A balanced attack from ART U (10-11 overall, 5-8 in PacWest) featured a team-high 15 kills by Brum, 10 kills from Papale, then nine apiece off the hands of Emrich and Ulmer. Brum added 12 digs for her 15th double-double and Smith contributed 42 assists. Irvine delivered three service aces to put her just four from the program's single-season record and she combined with sophomore
Kabrina Speakman for 20 digs on the day.
Academy of Art now embarks upon a three-part Hawaii roadtrip in which the Urban Knights will face Chaminade (Oct. 30), Hawaii Pacific (Oct. 31), and BYU-Hawaii (Nov. 1).
