Box Score
Oakland, CA -- The Academy of Art University women's volleyball team had ten days off between their last game and Wednesday night's matchup with Holy Names, but after a first set shaking off the rust, they got down to business, dispatching the Hawks in four sets behind a triumvirate of terror on the attack. The Urban Knights hit .292 on the night, led by a pair of freshmen in Emily Papale and Melissa Brum and junior Lindsay Elgin, who combined for 40 kills and a .370 hitting percentage as the Knights got back in the win column by a score of 3-1 (23-25, 25-14, 25-21, 25-13). 

The first game was a barn-burner, with the two teams going back and forth as it went on. Neither team was able to pull away at all, as the Knights had the biggest lead at 11-6, but the Hawks battled back to eventually pull even at 15-15. There were ties again at 17-17, 19-19, 20-20, and 21-21 before the Hawks were able to stave off a late comeback and secure set point on a kill from Siena Taylor to win the first set 25-23.

But it was all Urban Knights from there on out. With Brittany Ulmer toeing the line to serve, ART U rattled off six straight to jump out to a 6-0 lead. After a point by the Hawks, Academy of Art quickly got the ball back and duplicated that with another seven-point run to go up 13-1. Holy Names was never able to recover from that, and got a few points back before the Knights took advantage of a pair of errors to seal the deal in the second set.

Academy of Art made it two in a row in a more competitive third set that saw Holy Names take a 5-4 lead after a little run of their own. But the Knights went back on the attack, going on a 5-0 run to retake the lead 9-5. After that they were able to hold off the Hawks, never allowing them to get closer than a point at 12-11. Adding a couple points of space at a time, ART U was able to build up to a 23-21 lead before back-to-back kills from Lindsay Elgin put them up 2-1.

Like the second set, the fourth set was all Academy volleyball. It seemed like the third set took the wind out from the wings of the Hawks, as ART U held a 9-6 lead but quickly expanded that to 15-8 and then 22-12. Kanoe Irvine had three aces in the span of four serves in that run, which tied her for the all-time lead with 62 career aces, as the Urban Knights would get two kills from Emily Papale and force an error on the Hawks to secure the 25-13 set win and the 3-1 match victory.

Papale led all attackers with 14 kills, while Elgin added 13 kills on an outstanding .632 hitting percentage. Brum also had 13 kills on a .281 night, which pushed her over 250 kills in her debut campaign, and also added 12 digs. Senior Caitlin Boring had nine kills as she now only needs two more to break the 400-kill plateau in her career, while Rachael Smith contributed 45 assists, now only needing 21 to break the 1000-set mark here in 2013. Siera Taylor had 11 kills to lead Holy Names, who hit only .121 as a team.