BELMONT, Calif. – The epitome of down-to-the-wire, Friday night's Pacific West Conference volleyball match between Academy of Art and Notre Dame de Namur dramatically went the way of the Argonauts 3-2 (20-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-23, 17-15) inside Walter Gleason Gym. In what ended up being settled after the teams were tied 15-15 in the fifth set, the back-and-forth battle featured the Urban Knights' highest number of kills, assists, digs, and blocks thus far in 2018.

"The team was relaxed the first two sets and we were passing well to get our middles involved," said head coach Allen McCreary. "As the match went on, we started to play a little tight and we were starting to scramble and not play focused. In the fifth set, we had chances to win and just struggled at finishing it off."

No more than four points separated the teams in the early portion of the opening set and, midway through after NDNU went ahead 16-15, ART U responded by scoring five unanswered points starting with kills from redshirt senior middle blocker Safua Elisaia and freshman setter Picabo Reinhold. That margin held up for Academy of Art's 25-20 set victory which came on a put-away from sophomore outside hitter Ashley Pawlak.

Immediately riding the momentum from that win, the Urban Knights capitalized on errors by the Argos for an 8-3 lead then once again found their rhythm offensively. A Pawlak ace plus kills from Reinhold and freshman middle blocker Jillian Wheaton composed a 6-1 run that had the visitors on top 14-6. An 8-1 rebuttal from Notre Dame de Namur kept things interesting, but ART U would not relinquish the lead as kills by sophomore middle blocker Sadie Emery repeatedly denied tie scores. Four of the final five points helped give Academy of Art another 25-20 triumph that fittingly ended on a solo block by Wheaton.

With its back against the wall, NDNU strung together multiple runs to get back into the match with a 25-16 win in the third set followed by what appeared to be a straightforward victory in the fourth after the Argos held a 21-14 advantage. Furthering the excitement of the match, ART U mounted an impressive comeback with a 6-2 response that concluded with back-to-back Pawlak kills. Facing set point, the Knights managed to fight off a fifth set three times only to be just outlasted 25-23.

The fifth frame saw Pawlak continue to swing away as three of her kills contributed to a 6-4 lead early. At the change of court, however, NDNU had gone back ahead 8-7, but the teams would then tie eight more times before a victor could be named. Academy of Art faced match point at 14-13 only to get a kill by Emery and an Argos attack error for their own match point at 15-14. In the end, the final three scores went to NDNU and the home team would prevail 17-15 as the dust settled on an incredible PacWest contest.

Friday's result puts Academy of Art at 0-14 overall and 0-6 in conference play. Two career nights led the way with Wheaton having her highest kill total (17) and block total (eight) while Reinhold posted her most assists in a single match (41) to go with her highest dig total (14) for her third double-double of the year. To go with seven kills, Elisaia added her own career-high with 11 digs behind a season-best 26 from redshirt senior libero Lyndsay Mlynar, 21 for Pawlak (to go with 12 kills for her second double-double), and 14 from sophomore defensive specialist Michaela Charrette.

"[Jillian and Picabo] both played well," said McCreary. "We knew that they would do so if we were in system and most of the night we were."

Improving to 3-10 overall and 2-3 in the PacWest, Notre Dame de Namur was led by a match-high 21 kills from Rowan Jack plus 15 kills off the hand of Kathlin Martinez. Taylor Garcia had the match-high with 27 digs as well.

Tomorrow, ART U will be back in San Francisco at Kezar Pavilion hosting Fresno Pacific at 3 p.m.

"We'll definitely take some momentum with us into tomorrow's match and be able to move forward after we rest and recover," said McCreary.