Box Score
Photo Gallery (images by Genna Allen)
San Francisco, CA -- The Academy of Art women's volleyball team faced a tall task in their game against the conference's best in BYU-Hawai'i, but the young Urban Knights found a lot to take away from a spirited effort in a 3-0 loss to the No. 8-ranked Seasiders. The Knights improved with every set, and seemed so close to getting into a groove, many times upsetting the usually steady efficiency from the BYUH players.
"I think we saw a good fight," said head coach Ed Jackson. "We progressively improved through the match. We struggled early but we fought back. I thought we did a great job. It didn't go our way, but I really liked how we fought all the way through."
The Seasiders, who haven't lost a set since Sep. 6 and have won 16 matches in a row, came out strong in the first set against the Urban Knights, taking an early lead at 13-5. That lead would maintain throughout, and while the Knights were able to string a few points together, BYUH a four-point run at the end of the set gave the first set to the Seasiders 25-12.
From then on it was far from easy for the visitors, as the Knights rebounded from the first set to play a great set in the second. ART U got contributions from multiple weapons, as Angela Heath, Brittany Ulmer, and Taylor Suchy all got in on the action with multiple kills in the second set. The Knights got a big block from Lindsay Elgin and setter Rachael Smith to take a 4-3 lead, and then again to tie the set at 10-10. That second was the middle of a three-point run where the Seasiders made three straight attacking errors, a rarity on their season. The Knights had a chance late with BYUH leading 17-16, but the Seasiders offense rallied and went 8-2 the rest of the way.
That second set represented a rarity for the Seasiders, who hit .200 as a team in the middle frame. BYU-Hawaii has far and away led the conference in hitting percentage at .359 overall, more than 100 points better than the second-best mark. That was a plus for the Urban Knights, and they looked to carry that into the third set.
The third was a series of runs by both teams. A kill by Elgin led to back-to-back aces by
Jordan Cotton which tied the game at 3-3, but then a run by the Seasiders put them up 8-3 and forced Jackson to call a timeout. Then it was the Knights turn to turn up the heat, using some more errors from BYUH to tie the set at 9-9. The two teams tied at 10-10, 12-12, 13-13, and 14-14 before the Knights took an 18-16 lead late on two more aces from Cotton. But the Seasiders recovered from the service dominance, as they spread the ball around to five different attackers over the rest of the match to take the set 25-19 and the match 3-0.
"We did a great job of adjusting in the second and third sets," said Jackson. "I'm excited to be able to play a quality team like that. You can see that they make really good decisions. I think it's a good experience for our athletes, and tonight they started doing things in competition, which is something we haven't seen much yet this season, they started to adapt to their style of play, and that's why we got better and better."
The Knights got good contributions all around, highlighted by Ulmer's .364 hitting percentage on the night on five kills.
Angela Heath also had her second straight productive game, notching nine kills and 10 digs on a .217 hitting night. Lauren Hagemeyer (11) and Shih Ting Chen (10) had the most kills for the Seasiders, while Ying Chun Chen had 37 assists.
Academy of Art will hit the road next week to take on another ranked opponent in No. 21 Grand Canyon, and then face off against Dixie State next week.
