Box Score

San Francisco, CA -- Friday night marked only the Urban Knights second game in front of their home crowd in 2012, and the ART U faithful were treated to an outstanding offensive display from sophomore middle blocker Lindsay Elgin, who rode a stellar .545 hitting percentage to a career-best 20 kills on the night. The Knights won the first set 25-23, but the University of Hawai'i at Hilo came back to take the series with sets of 21-25, 9-25, 25-17, and 11-15.

"I think overall we played a really good match and fought from start to finish," head coach Ed Jackson said. "We just played inconsistently at times. We had some great individual performances and really pushed Hilo to the limit so I was really proud of the girls and how they played tonight."

The Urban Knights volleyball team has played 14 matches so far this season, and Thursday's match marked the sixth time going the distance to five sets. Friday's performance came up just short against the Vulcans, and a spat of inconsistency by ART U proved enough to send the pendulum swinging the other way for the Knights.

Academy of Art continued to put strong stretches together, and Elgin's output from the middle showed just how potent the Urban Knights offense can be. Freshman Taylor Suchy also had another strong performance, totaling 11 kills and 13 digs, and fellow freshman Rachael Smith flirted with ART U history but ended up short of the single-match assists record, finishing with 51 overall.

The Knights came out strong in the first set, at one point taking a nine-point lead at 14-5 after a kill from Elgin. But the Vulcans fought back into the competition, eventually tying the game up at 22-22. The teams traded points to make it 23-23, but the Knights got a kill from Janelle Burnett and then closed the set with an ace from Melissa Cheng to take the 1-0 lead.

The next two sets belonged to the Vulcans, as the Urban Knights took the lead again in the second set, but a couple separate runs by Hilo gave the visitors a lead late at 22-14. The Knights didn't quite quit, surging back on a kill by Suchy to make it 23-20, but couldn't complete the comeback to even the match. The third set was all Hilo, as they exploded for an 8-0 lead and then rode that momentum the rest of the way. Elgin had five of the nine points in the third set for the Knights.

Academy of Art then took control again, taking an 11-4 lead after back-to-back attack errors from Bria Morgan of Hilo. The Vulcans again battled their way back, tying it up at 15-15, but the Knights went on a 7-2 run that led to another Elgin kill to force a fifth set. The final set was close, tied as late as 4-4, but Hilo went on a 6-2 run that gave them the advantage. A kill by Holli "Ka'ena" Kaina brought the Knights within one point at 12-11, but three straight errors handed the victory to the Vulcans.

"We're really trying hard to win some matches," Coach Jackson said in regards to the six five-set matches the Knights have played thus far in 2012. "We did a really good job tonight of getting in a position to win. The great thing about five-set matches is that it's more experience. We have a very young team and every set they get to play is just more experience for them and they're getting better."

ART U continued to show spurts of productivity, hitting .275 and .316 in the first and fourth sets, respectively. They out-blocked their opponents again, tallying 8.5 total blocks to the Vulcans 5.0, but couldn't find an answer for Morgan, who had 26 kills to lead all scorers. Patty Snel added 15 kills and 29 digs for UH Hilo, while Jolie Au had 36 assists. The Knights will play again next Wednesday against Chaminade before hosting Dominican next Saturday.

"Definitely it's nice to be home," Coach Jackson said. "I thought we played a lot better than the first time we were home a few weeks ago. I look forward to some more matches next week when we're home again.. playing Chaminade and having a rematch with Dominican. I think our team is definitely improving and we're ready to take them on."