SAN FRANCISCO – Sophomore outside hitter Ashley Pawlak provided her fifth double-double of the year and redshirt senior middle blocker Safua Elisaia entered her name into the program record books, but it was not enough to stop late momentum from Notre Dame de Namur who defeated Academy of Art 3-1 (16-25, 25-18, 25-15, 25-20) in the PacWest Conference matchup on Monday night inside Kezar Pavilion.

Pawlak, freshman middle blocker Jillian Wheaton, and junior opposite Kiersten Kerch all got involved with the offense early as their kills plus a pair of service aces from Elisaia helped ART U establish a 7-4 lead. A 6-0 run shortly thereafter featured two more service aces by senior setter Alana Lucas and the Urban Knights quickly held a 13-5 advantage. The Argonauts worked the margin down to four points, but would come no closer as Elisaia and Wheaton worked back-to-back block assists to push Elisaia past the program's career block assists record while also spurring five unanswered points toward the eventual 25-16 triumph.

NDNU fought back by starting the second set with an 8-3 lead, but Academy of Art would make a move with another 5-0 push that saw redshirt senior libero Lyndsay Mlynar deliver back-to-back service aces, helping set up an 11-10 ART U advantage. Notre Dame de Namur soon rattled off six straight and steadily progressed to a 25-18 win to even the match.

The early stages of the third set saw another strong push from the visitors who went up 13-5 thanks to a 9-0 surge. That combined with a 6-0 run not long after, however, Elisaia then rose up for a pair of kills that started a 5-1 comeback. The Knights reached 15, but a tradeoff of points late led the Argos to win 25-15 and go up 2-1.