Box Score

Los Angeles, Ca-- The Academy of Art University Urban Knights were outmatched in the opening game of the Cal State LA/Cal State Dominguez Hills Volleyball Tournament Thursday afternoon.

The Urban Knights, who on Thursday played the Universities first Intercollegiate Volleyball match, struggled early on and could not recover losing in 3 sets (16-25,13-25,16-25). The Knights who were evenly matched until late in the first set were led by Sophomores Dan Yang (Beijing, China), and Jelena Jakovljevic (Valjevo, Serbia) who both finished the game 8 kills, while senior Levalasi Tupou (Citrus Heights, CA) finished with 4 kills, and freshman setter Alexandra Leja (Thermal, CA) finished with a team high 17 assists.

Cal State L.A. hit at a .432 percentage to the Urban Knights .083 and had a 40-25 edge in kills. The Golden Eagles also had an 11-4 advantage in blocks and had eight aces to four for the Urban Knights.

The Urban Knights made many mental and unforced errors which you can not do against a team and program as experienced as the Eagles. Cal State LA has made it to the NCAA Division II playoffs 8 of the past nine years and returned 9 players 3 of them starters from a team that went 17-10 last season.

Assistant Coach Alison Magner reflected on the game by saying "I felt like they were not more individually talented but they played like a team that has been winning for many years."  "We were certainly more talented but not "talented together." She added. Both Head Coach Marcus Young and Alison Magner agree that all of us were able to come away with a greater knowledge as to what we need to do from here on out.

The Urban Knights are back on the floor today at 3pm when they take on Cal State Dominguez Hills.