BELMONT, Calif. = Dominican women's volleyball kept it close but fell 3-2 Thursday night to Academy of Art at Walter Gleason Gymnasium.

Ella Heckman led four Penguins in setting career highs in kills as she finished with 18 kills to go with two aces, while Amani Abed added 12 kills and three blocks. Avery Schneider added 13 kills with Jasmine Heyward finished with nine kills to round out the group. The Urban Knights were led by Amalie Rupertova's 24 kills and 11 digs to go with three blocks.

The first set was tight throughout as ART U gained a small edge early after Rupertova sparked a 3-0 run to make it 6-4 in her team's favor. Maya McClellan then led a 5-1 run for the Urban Knights with a pair of kills and a block assist to extend the lead to five. After trading the next few points, Gabi Maiocco set up Schneiber and Abed for a pair of kills in a 3-point Dominican burst to close the gap to 15-13. Vanna Marquez then capped another 3-0 Penguin run with an ace to tie the match 18-18, but Rupertova found the floor on back-to-back kills to spark a 4-0 run for the Urban Knights to retake the lead. Dominican closed back within one after a kill by Heyward on an overpass, but the Urban Knights were able to just enough to hold on for a 25-23 set victory on a kill from McClellan.

The teams traded points early once again but this time it was the Penguins with the 4-point burst as Schneider found the floor for the first kill and Heyward added a kill off an overpass to take a 9-6 lead. Abed and Leslie then personally ushered forward another 3-0 run as each had a kill on either end of the duos combined block to extend the Dominican lead to four. The Urban Knights slowly cut into the lead as McClellan had back-to-back kills, but Heyward had a pair of kills to power a 4-0 response to extend the lead back to six at 23-17. Academy of Art would not go down without a fight as they went on a 6-1 run to close back within one, but Heyward and Abed combined for a block to seal the set for Dominican 25-23.

Heckman led the charge for Dominican in the third set as a kill and two aces propelled the Penguins to a 16-10 lead at the midway point of the set. The Urban Knights began chip away slowly until McClellan sparked a 4-0 run with a kill to tie the set 21-21. The teams began to trade points until a pair of Dominican errors gave ART U the 28-26 victory.

The teams followed a similar script in the fourth set as they traded points to a 10-10 tie with Abed helping spark the Penguins on a 4-0 run to take the narrow lead at 14-11 just moments later. The Urban Knights battled back to tie the set but an ace by Maiocco highlighted a 3-point Dominican run to retake the lead at 20-17. Once again Academy of Art went on a late run with Rupertova putting down consecutive kills to begin the 4-0 run that gave it a 23-22 lead. Leslie tied it up with a kill and an error gave Dominican set point and forced an Urban Knight timeout. Kendall Kibanoff returned out of the timeout and immediately served up an ace to send the match to a fifth set.

ART U recovered quickly as Jillian Wheaton had a pair of early blocks and a kill to quickly take an 8-1 lead in the deciding set. That was all the edge it needed as the teams traded points the rest of the way to a 15-8 Urban Knight victory.

Dominican will return home Saturday for a match with Fresno Pacific at 2 p.m. PDT at the Conlan Center.