SAN FRANCISCO -- Navigating the most matches played since 2009, Academy of Art volleyball showed heart, determination, and resilience throughout the course of its 2018 season.

Starting with the NorCal Volleyball Classic in Turlock, the Urban Knights faced a collection of California Collegiate Athletic Association members in Sonoma State, Chico State, Humboldt State, and tournament host Stanislaus State.
 
Academy of Art bridged the months of August and September by hosting its first tournament to date in the West Region Volleyball Crossover. ART U began by taking on Montana State Billings and, later that first day, redshirt senior outside hitter Safua Elisaia foreshadowed a milestone to come by moving into second on the program's career blocks list when the Knights challenged Cal State Dominguez Hills.
 
After tournament, ART U opened PacWest play in Southern California matched up with Point Loma and Azusa Pacific before returning to the Bay Area for contests against Holy Names, Biola, and Concordia the following week.

In the ensuing seven days, Academy of Art would takes games from Notre Dame De Namur, Fresno Pacific, and UH Hilo. On Sept. 21, the Urban Knights grabbed a two-set advantage on NDNU, but an Argonaut comeback forced a fifth set before taking a dramatic 17-15 victory. ART U leveraged the loss, which saw their highest totals across virtually every stat category, into momentum to take sets versus the Sunbirds in San Francisco and the Vulcans in Hawaii before closing their island roadtrip against Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade. Back-to-back strong weeks from freshman middle blocker Jillian Wheaton led her to consecutive PacWest Freshman of the Week honors (Sept. 24, Oct. 1) and began her run holding the highest hitting percentage among freshman in the conference.
 
Returning home from Hawaii, the Urban Knights opened with a rematch hosting Notre Dame De Namur and, though sophomore outside hitter Ashley Pawlak posted her fifth double-double (16 kills, 17 digs) and Elisaia became the program's career record holder in block assists, it was the Argos who came out on top once more. Following rematches with APU and PLNU, ART U was on the road at Dominican and found itself locked in a five-set battle yet again. Déjà vu saw the Knights holding a two-set lead before three straight from the Penguins put them over the top.
 
Playing four of its next five matches inside Kezar Pavilion, Academy of Art met its three Hawaiian conference opponents in the Bay Area then stepped into what would be an epic rematch with Holy Names on Halloween night. Amid a split of the first two sets, Elisaia became the program's all-time leader in total blocks and, alongside her in a passing of the torch, Wheaton added 14 kills with nine blocks as both coming up big in the fifth set that fittingly saw ART U come away 15-10 victors. Adding to the triumphant night, freshman setter Picabo Reinhold delivered her ninth double-double (40 assists, 11 digs) while redshirt senior libero Lyndsay Mlynar's 20 digs made her the third Urban Knight to cross the 1,000-dig threshold for her career.

"The team knew what was at stake and they wanted to avenge the loss to Holy Names earlier in the year," said head coach Allen McCreary.

Over the final four matches of the season, Academy of Art hung tough against FPU, Dominican, CUI, and Biola and had an opportunity to honor its senior trio of Elisaia, Mlynar, and setter Alana Lucas in their final home contest. From the announcement of the conference's postseason honors, Wheaton's honorable mention to the All-PacWest Team underscored her emergence as a freshman in 2018.

"Jillian is a good player and has only scratched the surface of what she can do," said McCreary. "We are excited to see how she develops. The younger players we had made an impact for this team and, with a few more additions this coming fall, we will be able to compete at the level. Depth is what we need at all our positions so we can have some good competitive practices."

As ART U transitions from the program's 11th season to its 12th, the team will use the lessons learned this past year to become all that much stronger.

"The season did not go the way we wanted it to go, but as we move forward with the returners and the new members, we will be ready to compete," said McCreary.