HONOLULU – Matching up with No. 15 Chaminade for the second time this season, Academy of Art volleyball dropped a 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-17) decision to the Silverswords inside McCabe Gymnasium in the Urban Knights' penultimate Pacific West Conference road contest of the season on Saturday.
Kills by graduate student outside hitter
Amalie Rupertova and graduate student middle blocker
Chandra Reed highlighted the first of two ART U scoring surges out of the gate. The initial 5-0 run was built upon by a kill from freshman middle blocker/outside hitter
Alohi Garcia and a Rupertova service ace on either side of a 6-0 push that had the Knights in front 11-3. A steady 14-3 counter run by CUH shifted the home team to a 17-14 advantage and eventually the 25-18 set victory.
Back-and-forth action began the second frame as three unanswered points including kills off the hands of sophomore middle blocker
Kaia Fittz and Rupertova were soon matched by three from the Silverswords. A Reed solo block capped a stretch that brought ART U to within three at 17-14, but seven consecutive scores closed out the 25-15 win for Chaminade.
Two straight service aces from graduate student outside hitter/right side
Maya McClellan keyed a Knights response to make it a one-point difference in the third set at 9-8 before the Silverswords once again started to separate with an 8-3 shift. Essentially trading points the rest of the way, CUH completed the sweep on a 25-17 final score.
The evening's results put Academy of Art at 4-21 on the season and 3-15 in PacWest play. Garcia's seven kills were a team-high for ART U and Rupertova amassed five kills to go with two service aces. McClellan also had a pair of aces plus nine digs while junior setter
Elly McInerney delivered 15 assists with five digs. Saturday marked the seventh consecutive match that freshman libero
LC-Reece Nakagawa collected double-digit digs as she totaled 11.
Chaminade, who leads all teams in the most recent NCAA Division II West Region rankings, improves to 28-3 and 16-3 in conference matchups. Mahala Ka'apuni paced the Silverswords with 11 kills, Leilani Ama added 26 assists, and Hula Crisostomo finished with 13 digs.
ART U will finish off its Hawaii roadtrip tomorrow with a 6 p.m. HT (8 p.m. PT) first serve versus Hawaii Pacific inside The Shark Tank.
