Box Score
SAN FRANCISCO – After facing the likes of Pacific West Conference leaders BYU-Hawai'i and Hawai'i Pacific to open league play, the Chaminade women's volleyball team was looking to get back into the conference standings in their opening act of a four-match road trip in Northern and Central California.
Instead, the Silverswords ran into an Academy of Art squad determined to get off the zero-win column in the conference, falling to the Urban Knights, 25-17, 24-26, 25-19, 25-22, Wednesday night at Kezar Pavillion.
The Swords fell to 4-6 overall and 1-4 in the PacWest, while the Urban Knights tasted conference victory for the first time this season, improving to 5-8 and 1-4.
Kim Spring led the Silverswords with 15 kills followed by Kylee Pedro and Crystal Powell with eight. Reigna Johnson had six kills and a team-high four total blocks. Brenda Walker tallied a season-high 28 digs on the evening, followed by 12 from Athena Maskarich, also a season-best. Art U was led by Emily Papale who put down a match-high 16.
The first set was played fairly evenly until midway through when the Urban Knights went on a decisive 14-5 run to go up, 1-0.
Chaminade opened Set 2 in a flurry, behind a trio of Spring kills, opening up an early 6-1 advantage. Art U battled back, tying the set at 10 and, eventually, took the lead at several points during the set. CUH, however, recaptured the lead at 15-14 on a Powell kill and later extended it to 21-18. The Urban Knights would stave off two set points, tying it at 24, but the Swords benefited from two hitting errors to win the set, tying it at one.
The third set opened much like the second with Chaminade taking an early 6-1 lead with kills from Johnson, Kapiolani Rapoza, Spring and Powell, forcing an Urban Knight timeout. Up 13-9, the Swords hurt themselves with a pair of attacking errors and a ball-handling error, which gave Art U its first lead of the set at 14-13. Chaminade would tie it at 16, but would be undone by mistakes as four attack errors and a service error would widen the gap to 24-17 as the Urban Knights won the pivotal third set.
The fourth set saw CUH take a 21-20 lead, but a momentum-swinging 4-0 run, led by Papale's three kills would set up match point. The Urban Knights would tally the final point, fittingly, on a Silversword service error.
Chaminade hit .147 in the match to Art U's .200. Both teams had a six total blocks, but the Swords piled up 12 service errors to the Urban Knight's seven.
The Silverswords continue their road trip Friday at Fresno Pacific, starting at 7 p.m. PDT.
