SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Another day, another victory. Shifting over to Dominican's Conlan Center for the continuation of the NorCal Kickoff Tournament versus Chico State on Friday morning, Academy of Art volleyball's end result was the same as the previous night; a 3-1 (25-19, 17-25, 25-18, 25-22) victory. Junior setter Picabo Reinhold collected a match-high 42 assists as all Urban Knights finished positive attack percentages led by senior middle blocker/opposite Sadie Emery's .500 clip. Meanwhile, the outside hitter trio of junior Isaura Santos and freshmen Ashley Mecham and Katherine Von Kraut accounted for 35 of the team's 49 kills.

"We were able to run a balanced attack so to our passing and when we are in system it opens up a lot of different attackers," said Head Coach Allen McCreary. "[Picabo] did a great job at running our offense and finding the one-on-ones we needed."

As the teams felt each other out, the scoreboard read 13-13 before ART U made a decisive move. A 5-0 run was bookended by a Von Kraut kill and a service ace from junior middle blocker Jillian Wheaton. Soon the advantage was six and Academy of Art had no problem trading points the rest of the way to a 25-19 win.

Chico State made a push of its own to turn a 6-5 Knights lead into their own 10-6 margin and, with neither team scoring more than two consecutive points thereafter, the second set went to the Wildcats 25-17.

Reinhold aced Chico State for the second point of the third frame then proceeded to set up her teammates as Von Kraut, Wheaton, and Emery each recorded kills during a 9-3 start. ART U initially did its best to keep the Wildcats at a distance, but with a 21-18 lead, the Knights rattled off the final four points on two pairs of back-to-back kills from Von Kraut and Santos for a 25-18 result and a 2-1 advantage in the match.

Looking to finish things off in the fourth, Academy of Art built a 17-11 margin by way of a 10-4 surge highlighted by multiple kills from Mecham. Though Chico State would rally back to trail ART U by a single point on two occasions thereafter, kills by Santos and Emery helped keep the pressure on before freshman setter Nina Garcia aced the Wildcats for the 25-22 victory.

ART U improves to 2-0 on the year with a collective .241 hitting percentage ranking the team's highest since Nov. 14, 2019. Santos bettered her previous kill total by one with 14 on Friday while 11 kills came from Mecham and Von Kraut added 10. With eight kills to just one error, Emery's .500 attack percentage was her highest with eight kills since her freshman season and she added a team-high four blocks as well. Reinhold's 42 assists were a season-high while freshman libero Elena Torres added a team-best 10 digs for her second match reaching double figures.

Sustaining its first loss of the season, Chico State drops to 1-1 despite a pair of 11-kill performances from Makela Keeve and Zoe DiNardo.

"For us we are taking it one match at a time and we are not focusing on anything but the team we are playing," McCreary said. "We off to a good start and we are looking forward to our next match and keeping our focus on winning the serve and pass game."

Academy of Art will play two matches on its final day of the NorCal Kickoff back inside Dominican's Conlan Center. At 10 a.m., ART U meets Cal State Monterey Bay then a pairing with Stanislaus State awaits at 3 p.m.