Box Score

Rocklin, CA -- The Academy of Art women's volleyball team had a lot pent up inside heading into their match on Friday night against William Jessup. After a rough stretch of games over the past two weeks, the Urban Knights were looking for a chance at retribution, and after a two-hour bus ride from San Francisco to Rocklin, the Knights were itching to get off the bus and onto the court.

Once inside and warming up in the Activities Building, the Urban Knights (6-12) worked out the kinks of the long ride and aimed to stretch their legs. For the Lady Warriors (3-19), coming off a win over Pacific Union, it seemed that they were just unfortunate bystanders, as ART U smelled blood from the get go and romped to a three-set sweep (27-25, 25-12, 25-17).

"The thing we've been talking about all season is team chemistry," head coach Allison Magner said. "It's been like that since last year when I took over as interim head coach. Today the focus was synergy. Play like people who want to play for want another. I feel like we had a breakthrough last week off the court, and they brought that onto the court today and made a move to improve."

An outstanding defensive effort rendered any hopes of a William Jessup comeback to be futile, as the Urban Knights held the Warriors to an -.064 hitting percentage as a team. It also didn't help that WIlliam Jessup lost CALPAC Player of the Week Sara Hickenbottom to a foot injury just prior to the game, so close to game-time that the coach for the Warriors had to scratch her off the lineup card before the first set.

Magner took full advantage, and sent out a more experienced lineup to get her team the win on Friday night. Mykal Vailu'u was still hampered by a knee injury so Amy Bush was back in the lineup at middle blocker. Senior Nicolette Hagan was in at defensive specialist, and with the exception of freshman libero Midori Le, every starter for the Knights was an upper-classman.

"We wanted to switch Ka'ena to the right side to pose a bigger block for teams in the future," Magner said. "But we also wanted to bring the experienced kids back on the floor, and they did an excellent job leading us to a win." The Urban Knights looked a little slow coming off the first set, as their bus arrived only 45 minutes before gametime, and the Warriors came from a 17-12 deficit back to a tie at 23-23. The match continued to extra points as the teams tied again at 24-24 and 25-25 before the set ended on a strange combo by WIlliam Jessup.

After an attack error by Hannah Baldwin tied the game at 25-25, Leinani Keanini came shooting down the middle for an attack only to have the Warriors player roll away from the ball, giving the Knights a 26-25 lead. The ensuing serve by Angela Heath was headed for the back row when the libero for WJU inexplicably reached in front of her teammate and had the ball glance off her hand out of bounds to give the Knights the set win.

"We just play, no matter what the situation," Coach Magner said. "There's always going to be bumps in the road. I think it is indicative of our season so far. It might not have gone the way we wanted at times, but in my opinion, you're only considered a loser when you stop trying , and we never stop fighting."

After that, the synergy that Magner was talking about kicked in, and the Urban Knights stepped up their game to the point that it looked like the team was going through the motions, but in a good way. Instead of playing lifeless and mechanical, it seemed that Academy of Art had reached a point where the digs, sets, and kills were fluid, and the points were piling up almost at will.

The second set was all Knights, as they jumped out to a 6-1 lead right away. Back to back kills by Leanani Keanini ended a run that put ART U up 13-2, and a huge block by Bush and Ka'ena Kaina had the Knights on top 18-4. Academy of Art didn't let up and pushed the lead to 16 points at 23-7 before Heath finished off the Warriors again 25-12.

The third set had more competition, as William Jessup looked to salvage at least one set from the Urban Knights here in 2011. There were multiple ties, with the last coming at 14-14, but the Knights pulled away with Keanini serving and Bush putting up back-to-back kills to put ART U up 19-15. The Urban Knights had another three-point run and ended the set and match by putting the Warriors down 25-17.

Keanini, who starred in the first matchup against William Jessup, put up almost identical numbers the second time around. Back on September 16, Keanini totaled seven kills, ten digs, three total blocks, and a service ace. On Friday, October 14, she had seven kills, 12 digs, and a service ace for the Knights.

"Synergy, to me, is all components working as one, " Coach Magner said. "It's been hard to stick with a lineup due to injury and sometimes having players with less experience on the court, but synergy is truly getting a lineup where everyone can know their piece of the job and perform it to help us win."