Box Score
SEASIDE— For the second straight year, the SF State Gators and Academy of Art Urban Knights played to a five-set match. The only problem this year, it was the Urban Knights (1-1) holding off the Gators (25-27, 18-25, 25-14, 25-22, 7-15) in both team's second match at the Otter Classic in Seaside, Calif., despite SF State's 70 kills led by
Jaclyn Clark's match-high 16 kills.
SF State (1-1) had two players record double-doubles in Clark and
Melissa Horton. Clark had 16 kills and 12 digs including hitting for a 26%. Horton recorded her second consecutive double-double with 15 kills and 16 digs. Also recording double digits in kills were
Meagan Wright (14 kills) and
Kelly Ostello (13 kills). Wright and Ostello each had three services.
The first set of the match went back and forth early until the Gators scored six consecutive points led by Clark with three kills as they took a 10-4 lead. Academy of Art cut the deficit to 10-9 on two of Melissa Brum's 14 kills.
SF State (1-1) increased its lead to 16-11 on Wright's service ace, but the Urban Knights scored 9 of the matches' next 12 points to take a 20-19 lead capped by a Brum kill. The Gators retook the lead as Ostello recorded a kill and a service to give SF State a 21-20 lead.
The set went back and forth with Lindsay Elgin's kill giving Academy of Art a 25-24 lead. Horton tied the match for the Gators with a kill of her own at 25-25, but the Urban Knights recorded back-to-back kills by Caitlin Boring and Emily Papale to take the set 27-25.
The second set started off similar to the first one as it went back and forth early on with it being tied at 6-6 on a kill by the Gators' Clark.
Academy of Art scored the next four points to take a 10-6 lead, but the Gators came right back and cut the deficit to 10-9 which was the closest that SF State would get for the rest of the set.
The Urban Knights increased their lead to 20-14 on a Rachael Smith kill and then held on for a 25-18 set two win to take a 2-0 lead.
SF State came back out on fire after the break as they took a 7-4 lead with Wright recording two service aces to lead the way for the Gators. They increased their lead to 17-9 on an Ostello service ace. The Gators then took a 22-12 lead as
Kaileen Mejia had two of her 7 kills to lead the way SF State ended taking the set 25-14 as
Jacquie Brice closed out the set with a kill off an assist from
Jessica Nicerio.
Things did not look good early on in set three for the Gators as their opponent took a 7-3 lead. The Gators rallied back and scored 9 of the next 10 points to take a 12-8 lead keyed by Ostello with two kills while Nicerio had an ace and Wright and Horton each had kills.
Academy of Art did not go away though as the Gators' opponent cut the lead to 17-16 as SF State had a couple of service and hitting errors. They rebounded though to score the next three point to take a 20-16 lead. The Gators then held on for the 25-22 set three win to even up the match at 2-2.
In the fifth and deciding set, the Urban Knights came out on fire as they took a 7-2 lead. The Gators cut the deficit to 9-5 on a service error by Academy of Art, but could not get any closer as the Urban Knights took the fifth set 15-7. SF State hit a -.222 in this set while their opponents had a .308 hitting percentage.
Academy of Art also had 13 total team blocks led by Elgin's 8 total blocks (7 block assists). Elgin was one of four Urban Knights that recorded double digits in kills with Brum leading the way with 14. Jordan Cotton had five of their 10 service aces and Smith had 51 assists.
SF State will conclude bracket play tomorrow morning at 9am in the Otter Classic in Seaside with a match against Dominican University of California. Then the Gators will have to wait and see if they for first, third or fifth place. Four teams are currently 1-1 in SF State, Saint Martin's, Academy of Art and Dominican. Cal State Monterey Bay and Cal Baptist are playing the final match of the day right now in Seaside with the Lancers taking set one 25-23.
Box Score
