ARCATA, Calif. – Behind a complete team effort with three players registering double-digit kills, Academy of Art University volleyball defeated Humboldt State 3-2 (21-25, 25-21, 18-25, 25-21, 15-10) in a rematch on Friday. The Urban Knights rallied back from down 2-1 and created the necessary separation with a 6-1 run midway through the fifth set.

"We're very excited to start the season with a tough road win," said head coach Ray Batalon. "It's certainly not easy coming all the way up [to Arcata], but I think some of the work we've been doing regarding our team culture paid off this afternoon. Despite struggling all of set three and for most of set four, our team stuck together and played themselves out of it. We kept chipping away and chipping away and found ourselves still in it late in that fourth set. We went into a 6-2 at that point and things turned around."

The difference in the opening set was an 11-1 run by the Lumberjacks midway through. Despite being answered by a 12-4 ART U surge that featured kills by redshirt junior middle blocker Safua Elisaia, freshman outside hitter Ashley Pawlak, and freshman middle blocker Sadie Emery, HSU prevailed 25-21.

Set two saw an early push by Academy of Art to go up 8-4 and later kills by freshman setter Lilika Teu and senior outside hitter Bailey Soolsma during a 6-2 run helped keep the Knights in control. Humboldt State would steadily battle back to within a single point at 22-21, but ART U never relinquished its lead and evened the match with its own 25-21 win.

In the third frame, 11 unanswered points by the Jacks gave them an early advantage, but Academy of Art did not give up. The Knights scored 12 of 16 points during a comeback stretch, however, the Jacks used timely kills to hold on for the 25-18 result and a 2-1 lead.

HSU appeared to be on its way to another 3-1 victory after going up 13-7 in the fourth set, but ART U again rallied. This time it was a 9-2 move capped by three consecutive kills from Pawlak, Emery, and Soolsma. From 20-20, it became 25-21 and finished with an emphatic block by senior middle blocker Margaret Winkler and sophomore middle blocker Jennifer Argelander.

"I think the big turning point came late in set three," said Batalon. "We were really struggling with our offense and our rhythm was off. I subbed in Alana [Lucas] and Jen [Argelander] to run our 6-2 late hoping that they could interject some energy. We ended losing the set, but it was a huge turning point because we gained some much needed momentum going into set four. Then, in set four, we struggled early with our serve receive yet we kept ourselves in it with some tough serving. We stayed with our 6-2 and pulled it off."