Box Score

Photo Gallery (images by Austin McKeon & Belen Tenorio)

San Francisco, CA -- The Academy of Art women's soccer team has stressed again and again how important it is to them to be the best in the Bay Area. After three games against local opponents, the Urban Knights are holding to that standard following their 3-1 win over Holy Names University on Saturday. Freshman Jule Klandt flirted with a hat trick with two first-half goals and Beth Barker added one more the second half to seal the deal for ART U's second straight conference win.


"The teams here in the Bay are strong competition for us," said head coach Aileen Nasypany. "Today we played another good team. It was a good win, a solid win. We put the goal in the back of the net when we needed to. This is our last home game until the end of October so it was important for us to get two wins before we head out."

In the first matchup between these two soccer teams, the Urban Knights and Hawks from Holy Names seemed to spend the first quarter of the match feeling each other out, getting an idea of the game that was going to be played. The Hawks took the first shot of the game less than 90 seconds in, but then the Knights started to get their offense rolling, something that they have shown to be a very dangerous attack if it's in sync. The Knights proceeded to start piling on shots, getting three in three minutes that had to be turned away by the HNU defense.

Then at the 20-minute mark, things really started to pick up. Louise Fillingham fired off two shots in a row, one that went wide and another that was saved by the Hawks keeper. But while Fillingham's shot was denied, Holy Names could not stop freshman Jule Klandt, who took a deflected pass and went top shelf with it, clearing the outstretched arms of the keeper and giving the Urban Knights a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute.

Klandt took another shot in the 25th minute that was just wide, and following three straight shots by the Hawks that were either blocked or saved by Rachael Rempe, Klandt was set up again. Beth Barker, who hooked in the game-winning corner kick against Dominican on Thursday, dribbled down the left side to the far end line before chipping a ball into the box that found Klandt again, who headed it over the goalie again, off the crossbar and down into the goal for a 2-0 advantage. That was the score heading into the half, with the Knights (14) and the Hawks (9) totaling 23 shots in all but only taking one corner kick each.

"I woke up today and I knew we were going to win," said Klandt, who scored her first goals of her career. "I didn't know that I would score, but it felt so good and I'm so proud of the team."

After halftime, the Urban Knights were right back on the attack, taking two shots in the first five minutes that were offline. Then, on a perfectly timed play in transition, senior captain Jasmine Sharpe crossed a ball behind the defense from the right side of the field to Barker streaking down the left side, who settled, took two dribbles into the box, and drove the ball past the oncoming keeper to the right post to give the Knights a 3-0 lead. It marked Sharpe's fifth assist of the year, which leads both the team and the conference.

"I talked to [the team] at halftime about if we could grow as a unit," said Nasypany. "We've scored some goals this year, so I wanted us to get better as a program and once we get a lead, to hold on to it. Can we show courage, can we show confidence, can we show composure? I was really proud of how the team worked hard together."


Holy Names added one goal in the 61st minute on a play into a crowd in the box, with Rebecca Disbrandt eventually being the last one to hit it in, but that was all that the Knights allowed, making it the sixth game this year out of ten allowing one goal or less to their opponents. The two-goal margin also marked the first time in six games that the Knights played a game with a difference of more than one goal, and incidentally, that game was also against a Bay Area opponent in Mills College, who the Knights defeated handily by a score of 10-0.

"Every practice, every game, our defense has been getting better and better at becoming a solid unit," said Sophie Meneses, the sophomore captain of the ART U defense. "This game we had one goal get through, but we've been improving every game. I'm really proud of how close we've become and how good we're doing."

ART U finished up their six-game home stand to start the season, and will not play at home again until the end of October, on their senior day against Notre Dame de Namur. They'll head to Belmont next week to take on the Argonauts to start a streak of four straight on the road.