Box Score

Fresno Pacific came into tonight's match with a #15 national ranking, a 14-match winning streak and had yet to drop a single set at home. None of that seemed to matter to visiting Academy of Art, who gave the Sunbirds all they could handle in a five-set nailbiter before FPU survived the Urban Knights' upset bid for the 3-2 win (17-25, 25-19, 22-25, 25-16, 15-9).

The Sunbirds (16-1, 8-0 PWC) had to come from behind, trailing 2-1 after three sets, but would fight back in sets four and five to send the Urban Knights (5-12, 2-6 PWC) home with a loss.

"A match like this definitely helps us going forward," said head coach Kelly Winter. "Academy of Art is a great team that has played well against a lot of quality opponents. Our hitters struggled tonight, we had three players in the negative deep into match. Our setters and our hitters weren't in sync. A lot of things weren't working tonight, but we've identified some things we need to work on."

With many of the Sunbirds' outside hitters struggling, middle blockers Kathleen Anderson and Morghan Williams stepped up big. Anderson finished with a match-high 17 kills and just two errors on .455 hitting, along with a team-high five blocks. Williams hit .500 on the night, finishing with just one error, nine kills and four blocks.

"We just kept telling our setters to get the ball to the middle," said Winter. "Kathleen did a really nice job. Our middles are working really hard and executed really well tonight."

Both teams struggled to get into a rhythm, with FPU hitting .178 and ARTU just .090 on the night. It was a sloppy match at times, with the two teams combining for 21 service errors.

The Urban Knights jumped on the Sunbirds right away in set one, building an 8-2 lead. FPU seemed completely out of sync in set one, a 25-17 loss, and it was clear the team could be in for a long night.

The Sunbirds came out battling in set two, taking a 15-7 lead and would hang on for a 25-19 win. The third set was there for the taking for FPU, tied 22-22, but three attack errors in a row would give ARTU the 2-1 lead in the match.

Karah Mitchell would enter the match for FPU after sitting the first three sets and provided a much-needed spark. The Sunbirds also replaced Rupia Inck temporarily with Mikayla Tucker when serving. Tucker, as she's done multiple times this season provided the team a spark as well.

"Mikayla is one of our best servers and did a great job stepping in," said Winter. "We have such an amazing bench and we needed it tonight. If we don't have our bench players we lose this match."

The fourth set was tied 14-14 before the Sunbirds closed it out on an 11-2 run, giving the team some much-needed momentum heading into set five. FPU built up a 7-1 lead but the Urban Knights slowly crawled back to get within 9-6. With FPU ahead 12-9, the Sunbirds would close it out by getting the final three points on an ARTU attack error, a deceptive set and subsequent kill by Emily Carroll and a kill by Anderson to end it.

Local product Rachael Smith (Clovis HS) had 39 assists to lead the Urban Knights. Lindsay Elgin was the dominant force for ARTU, finishing with 13 kills, just one error, eight blocks and a .480 attack percentage. Janelle Burnett had 21 digs.

Erica Adachi finished with 23 assists and 18 digs to go with six kills. Carroll added 23 assists as well. Inck had 10 kills and 14 digs on an off-night where she hit just .050. Hannah Butler was steady for the Sunbirds on defense with a match-high 25 digs.

The Sunbirds have a week off before traveling to Oakland to take on Holy Names next Saturday.