St. George, UT --- Riding a five game win streak, the Academy of Art women's volleyball team entered the match tonight eager for the win. Facing the predicted Preseason Conference Champs didn't rattle the Urban Knights as they took the match in five sets (25-19, 25-23, 22-25, 13-25, 15-12). All signs pointed to an ART U Victory tonight as the Urban Knights house two Pacwest Top 10 Honor Roll athletes and boast the top hitting percentage in the conference (.243). Amy Bush is second in the conference in hitting percentage individually (3.46), while Dan Yang leads the league in kills (188), and is third in conference in kills per set (4.27).
"Tonight we were focused on playing as a unit. That is what we need to do from here on out in order to achieve the success we want," Said Head Coach Allison Magner.
"It was not one main person that can take credit for the win, tonight it was a complete team effort, all 13 players contributed and that's what made the difference," Magner added.
The Urban Knights took the first two sets from the Redstorm, 25-19, 25-23. Dixie State, however, put together and impressive rally, taking the next two sets to push the match to a decisive fifth set.
It was anyone's game in the fifth. The Urban Knights jumped out to an early 7-2, but the Redstorm countered with a 5-0 run to tie the game at 7 a piece. After the teams switched sides it was a back and fourth battle, with no team leading by more one point. The final tie of the set came at 12-12, and it was then that the Urban Knights closed out the match scoring the final three points and taking game one, 15-12.
ART U was led offensively by Dan Yang who finished the fourth set leading all players with 15 kills. The senior went on to finish the match with 19 kills and 15 digs and three total blocks. Camille Board had her second straight double digit kill night, finishing the match with 12 kills.
Melissa Cheng had a solid match for the Urban Knights as well, the sophomore dished out a team high 39 assists to go with her 12 digs and two blocks. Amy Bush was a deterring force at the net; she finished the match with four blocks and knocked down seven kills. While Angela Heath contributed eight kills and nine digs in ART U's win.
For Dixie State Madisyn Fitzgerald led the way, finishing with 13 kills and six total blocks. Brita Noble and Morgan Hill each chipped in with 11 and 10 kills respectively
ART U takes the court again tomorrow for their second of the two game series, opening serve is set for 2:00 PM GMT.
