Box Score

San Francisco, CA -- The Urban Knights were vindicated on Saturday night, taking the momentum from their win against Chaminade and rebounding from their loss against Dominican two weeks ago and emerging victorious in a 3-1 match against the Lady Penguins. Academy of Art had their second straight match with a balanced attack, getting three players in double digits in kills as they went 25-18, 18-25, 25-18, and 25-21.

"It's always nice to have your team show what kind of progress has been made between that match and this match," said head coach Ed Jackson. "We've obviously been working hard, and that showed tonight to win in four. We're doing a better job of understanding our strengths and weaknesses as a team."


The Knights were determined not to let the Penguins put on a repeat performance of the last match between these two teams, and in the first set kept up the efficient play that got them on track earlier this week. They jumped out to an early lead, using a kill by Lindsay Elgin to make it 8-4 and force an early timeout by Dominican. The Knights didn't let that stop their momentum, extending the lead as far as 18-9 before two errors by the Penguins sealed the set for ART U.

The Knights took the lead early in the second set, but Dominican came back to tie it up at 12-12. They broke the tie with a 7-0 run before ART U could answer back, and even though Academy of Art fought off four match points, the Lady Penguins took the set and evened the score on a kill from Ashlee Sand.

A lot is revealed about a team when they're forced to respond after the opposing team takes a set, and the Urban Knights strapped their armor right back on for the third set. Just like the second, they struck first. But Dominican then built a 7-4 lead after a kill from Jessica Jones. The Knights battled back, tying it up at 8-8 and then expanding to a 17-10 margin later in the set. Dominican continued to hang with the Urban Knights, but Taylor Suchy got back-to-back kills to give her squad a 2-1 advantage on the third straight set with a score of 25-18.

Lindsay Elgin and Angela Heath started off the fourth set with kills to give Academy of Art an early lead, and they seemed determined to not let Dominican get any ideas about forcing a fifth set, fighting off every advance by the Penguins. The game was tied at many times throughout, the latest at 14-14. Then with the score at 20-18, the Knights made a final push toward the finish line. A kill by Suchy and a ball handling error by Dominican made the score 22-19 and forced a timeout by the Penguins. The Knights took a timeout with the score 23-21, and followed that with a kill from Heath and an error from Dominican to get the set and the match.

Brittany Ulmer had a great game for the Urban Knights, tying a career high with 12 kills, hitting at a .276 clip. Suchy led the Knights with 13 kills and 20 digs. Elgin had 11 kills as the third Knight in double figures, adding six total blocks to her season total. Heath hit at a .280 percentage with nine kills and 16 digs, and Rachael Smith had a career-high with four kills and 52 assists. Jessica Jones had 16 kills to lead the Penguins, who hit .145 for the match.

"I think the entire team was really confident after our last win against Chaminade," said Ulmer after the game. "We carried our energy very well into this game. We had a chance to redeem ourselves, and everyone was really fired up and ready to play these guys. Throughout the match, I didn't really know how well I was doing, but I knew that our outsides, our right sides, our middles were all on."

Ulmer, who ranks fifth on the team in kills, made it into double digits for the second time in her career, and is enjoying a big uptick in her playing time in her sophomore campaign. She has already surpassed her marks in playing time and in kills, and is going through a position change from outside hitter to middle blocker, a position that she has picked up very quickly under Jackson and his staff.

"It all comes down to a good first-ball contact," said Jackson. "We did a great job of that tonight, and it really opened up our offense and allowed us to send multiple attackers. We're just going to keep getting better every day. We'll look at the video, and take a look at the things we can still improve on. That will carry us into next week."

The Knights will have a week and then hit the road to take on Fresno Pacific. This will be the first time that the Knights face the Sunbirds, who sit atop the PacWest standings with a 14-1 record.