Match #12
ART U Urban Knights (5-6) vs. Holy Names Hawks (5-8)
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 7:00 PM
Oakland, CA - Tobin Gymnasium
Live Stats

OPENING SERVE
The Urban Knights head across the Bay Bridge to take on NAIA foe Holy Names in a non-conference matchup on Tuesday. The Knights are 6-0 lifetime against Holy Names, sweeping 3-0 on October 26 of last year. 

ON THE APPROACH
ART U is on a hot streak after rattling off four wins and 11 straight set victories dating back to September 10th against Colorado Mesa. After dropping the third set to Mesa, the Knights won the fourth and fifth to end the Holiday Inn Crossroads Classic with a win. Since then, they have swept nine straight against William Jessup (25-22, 25-12, 25-19) and Dominican twice on Sept. 17 (25-13, 25-16, 25-8) and Sept. 24 (25-17, 25-23, 25-12). 

HEATH HEATING UP
Junior Angela Heath earned a selection to the PacWest Top 10 Honor Roll for the week of Sept. 19-25 after putting up big numbers in the second sweep in as many weeks over Dominican University (CA). Although the right side hitter only played in one match, she still ranked fifth in the conference for hitting percentage (.476), third in points per set (5.33), and second in blocks per set (1.67) for the week. Heath recorded 12 kills and five total blocks for a total of 16 points against the Lady Penguins. Heath ranks third on the team in hitting percentage (.248) and in blocks per set (0.52), and is fourth on the Urban Knights in total points (81.0). 

HAWKS FLYING HIGH
The Hawks of Holy Names are on a similar string of good play, winning their last four matches and only dropping two sets in that span, both in a marathon match against UC Santa Cruz. The Hawks battled the Banana Slugs for five sets that were all close, including a 31-29 second set. Since then, Holy Names has swept six straight sets from William Jessup (Sept. 20) and Pacific Union College (Sept. 24). The Hawks are 2-0 in the CalPac conference, and are undefeated on their home floor. Sophomore middle blocker Rachel Vartanian leads the way for the Hawks and the CalPac with a .256 hitting percentage, and senior outside hitter Samantha Miller is second in the conference in kills per set (2.8).

LEADING THE PAC
Academy of Art head coach Allison Magner has made it clear that, although they are taking the season one game at a time, her season-long goal is to win the PacWest conference. After sweeping two straight from Dominican to begin PacWest play, the Knights are now 2-0 in conference and are tied with Grand Canyon for first place. After playing Holy Names, the Urban Knights will have a stretch of five PacWest matches against Dixie State, Cal Baptist, and Grand Canyon. GCU has to go through Hawaii-Hilo, BYU Hawaii, and Dominican before facing the ART U on Oct. 11.

SOCIAL NETWORKING
Remember to check @UrbanKnightNews on Twitter for score updates and recaps. Also become a fan of the Knights on Facebook by 'Like'-ing the Urban Knights page.

LOOKING AHEAD
The Knights will host five straight PacWest matches at Kezar Pavilion, starting off with back-to-back contests against Dixie State on Monday and Tuesday of next week, followed by another back-to-back against Cal Baptist (Oct. 7 & 8) and then Grand Canyon on Oct. 11. All games will begin at 7:00 PM