SAN FRANCISCO – There were rejections aplenty Friday night inside Kezar Pavilion as Academy of Art volleyball tied the program's block assists record (34) while recording the third-most blocks in ART U history (17.0) in the Urban Knights' first home match of the season, a back-and-forth Pacific West Conference rematch that ended up going the way of Biola 3-2 (25-21, 19-25, 25-15, 25-27, 15-10) when the dust had settled. One shy of the program's individual block assist record, graduate student middle blocker Chandra Reed led the way with nine stops at the net followed closely by eight from junior right side Sofia Stemberga and seven by freshman middle blocker/outside hitter Alohi Garcia.

An 5-1 lead for the Eagles to start the match was quickly countered by kills from graduate student outside hitter/right side Maya McClellan and freshman outside hitter/right side Crystal Creek before Reed and Stemberga teamed up for a block as a sign of things to come. McClellan and Creek continued to swing with success, ultimately help tie the set at 13-13 before a 7-1 run separated BU for the eventual 25-21 win.

Each side was up in the early stages of the second frame, but from a 12-12 score, the Knights rose ahead 18-14 on the strength of back-to-back blocks combining Reed and McClellan. A grand total of seven block assists in the set alone energized Academy of Art and its home crowd as Stemberga partnered with two more of her teammates to force set point before the 25-19 final point fittingly came on a rejection by graduate student outside hitter Amalie Rupertova and Garcia, evening the match.

Up 10-2 to begin the third set, Biola never trailed in the frame, fending off ART U surges of 5-1 and 3-1, the first of which saw Reed and Stemberga coauthor a block along the way. The Knights could not overcome a 17-10 margin down the stretch as the sides traded points toward a 25-15 end favoring BU.

Perhaps the most hard-fought frame of the match, the fourth set opened with Academy of Art ahead 4-0 then 11-4 after junior setter Elly McInerney delivered the ball to Creek, McClellan, and Stemberga for kills before offering her own service ace. Another block by Reed and Creek was compounded by another McClellan kill to make it 17-9, but six straight Eagles points made things close once more. Suddenly a 5-1 burst gave the visitors a 23-22 advantage yet five of the next seven points belonged to ART U as the Knights fought off set point, winning 27-25 on another McInerney service ace.

That momentum carried into the decisive fifth frame where kills by Creek and McClellan bookended a 4-2 start, however, Biola answered to put themselves on top 6-5. McClellan and Rupertova kills returned Academy of Art to a 7-6 lead, but it would be the last for ART U as the Eagles steadily moved back on a 9-3 run to end the match at 15-10.

Academy of Art drops to 1-10 overall and 0-4 in PacWest play despite dominant blocking from the trio of Reed (nine block assists to tie her for third in program history), Stemberga (eight blocks), and Garcia (seven blocks) who all contributed to 34 block assists which tied the mark achieved versus Seattle Pacific on Sept. 3, 2009 and, with 17.0 total blocks, tied with the Nov. 3, 2011 performance at Hawaii Pacific for third-most in ART U history. Offensively, McClellan's sixth double-double of the year saw her post 18 kills and a season-high 20 digs while Rupertova delivered her fifth double-double with 11 kills plus 15 digs. Creek's 11 kills and four blocks were both season-bests along with junior setter Lina Ellilä's 27 assists and freshman libero LC-Reece Nakagawa's 28 digs.

Biola, now 8-3 on the season and 4-0 in conference matchups, found success with 17 kills from Emily Smith while Abby Brewster added 29 assists and Bri Bellfi collected 30 digs.

The second match of ART U's six-part homestand sees the Knights host Westmont back inside Kezar Pavilion tomorrow at 2 p.m.