SAN FRANCISCO – In a rollercoaster ride of a match, Academy of Art University volleyball finished a grueling five sets in celebratory fashion, defeating D2 West Region Volleyball Showcase host SF State 3-2 (25-20, 22-25, 25-23, 11-25, 15-13) Saturday night inside the Gators' Main Gymnasium. Five Urban Knights posted career-highs in the victory including three with double-doubles.
"This was a confidence boosting win for us tonight," said head coach
Ray Batalon. "We really needed this win to reward all the players for working hard throughout this tournament. We felt that the team really improved each and every match throughout and this win was a reward."
Breaking a trend of recent slower starts, ART U jumped ahead of SFSU 10-7 via a 7-2 run that mixed kills from freshman outside hitters
Ashley Pawlak and
Kimiah Johnson as well as sophomore setter
Lilika Teu and redshirt junior middle blocker
Safua Elisaia. The Knights' lead was extended on four unanswered points including two kills by senior outside hitter
Bailey Soolsma and Academy of Art warded off a SF State comeback, winning 25-20 on Soolsma's seventh kill.
An 8-5 start for Academy of Art in the second set was soon erased by the Gators and, after the teams traded points, two small runs of 5-1 and 4-1 were enough to get the home team a 25-22 victory, evening the match.
From down 10-5 in the third, the Knights fought back to eventually tie at 17-17. Despite facing a 22-19 deficit thereafter, an impressive momentum shift saw ART U score six of the final seven points highlighted by back-to-back blocks from Elisaia and Soolsma prior to and at the 25-23 set point.
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Set four favored SF State early on as a 14-6 start helped the Gators force a fifth frame after their 25-11 win. The match see-sawed to start the fifth set with a 5-3 lead for Academy of Art then a 7-5 advantage for SFSU. Despite falling behind 11-9, the Knights rallied with put-aways from Johnson and Soolsma, setting up an exciting finish. Coming out of a timeout at 13-13, the Knights went up on a kill by Soolsma and finished off the 15-13 victory on a SF State attack error.
"The fifth set was definitely a nail-biter," said Batalon. "At 13-13, I recall SF State called a timeout. I told our team at that point, they're going to set up their defense to stop Bailey, but at that point, I told our setters to set her anyways because she was in a zone. That gave us the advantage and the key to setting up the win."
ART U 2-4. Soolsma built on her career-high from the day prior with 23 kills, tying her for the ninth most in ART U history, and added 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Johnson also dropped a new career-high with 16 kills plus 11 digs while Teu offered a season-high 41 assists with a career-high five kills on a .556 hitting percentage and eight digs. Pawlak also broke out for 12 kills and 30 digs, the most by an Urban Knight since Kanoe Irvine set the single-game record with 38 in 2014 and tied for the sixth-most in program history. Redshirt junior libero
Lyndsay Mlynar tied her season-high with 21 digs as well.
"This was a great night for Bailey," said Batalon. "She worked extremely hard on her game this past summer and we finally got her the ball to take good swings. I'm very happy for her. As for Kimiah and Ashley, it's good to see them contributing to our team very early and they both have promising careers ahead of them."
SF State drops to 4-4 and had its share of highlights with Lauren Williams earning 18 kills and Jocelyn Rodriguez registering 36 digs.
The start of Pacific West Conference play is up next for Academy of Art. ART U's 2017 campaign begins with Notre Dame de Namur on Friday, Sept. 15 in Belmont.
"Moving forward, this was another great five-set win on an opponent's home floor," said Batalon. "Tonight, we showed some grit that we'll need heading into conference play."
