San Francisco, CA – Academy of Art University Women's Basketball head coach LaNay Larson continues to increase the size and depth of her 2013-14 roster with the official announcement that Maria "Irene" Aranda will join the Urban Knights. Aranda, a 5-10 guard from Vincent Memorial High School, helped guide Scots to basketball to its sixth consecutive Manzanita League title this past year.

“Irene is a great addition to our program,” Coach Larson said. “She is a very long, versatile guard that contributes in a variety of ways. We are very happy she decided to continue to career here at Academy of Art.”

Driven by a will to win at Vincent Memorial, Aranda and the Scots were named Manzanita League champions four times from 2009-13. The last three years of her time there (2010-13), the Scots went to the qualifying round of the CIF State Playoffs and, in 2009-10, still made the CIF State Playoffs Quarterfinals.

She completed her senior year as a Scot with 609 total points, averaging 24.4 a game (ranked #4 among San Diego Section women's basketball and #2 in Division V), as well as 47 rebounds, 42 assists and 42 steals. The year prior, Aranda ranked #15 among scoring leaders in California and Top 10 in San Diego Section in terms of scoring (#2), assists (#8), and steals (#10).

Additionally, Aranda garnered a host of individual accolades nearly every one of her four years at Vincent Memorial. She was a four-time Manzanita All-League First Team recipient as well as three-time CIF League First Team (2010-13), three-time Imperial Valley Press First Team All-Valley High Schools (2010-13), two-time Manzanita League Player of the Year (2011-13), and two-time Imperial Valley Press Athlete of the Week (2011-13).

“First of all,” she says, “I wanted to major in industrial design and that school has a really good program. Also, the women's basketball program is in a higher division and last year, they went to the NCAA Tournament.”

Although Aranda received offers from the other women's basketball programs of New York University Baruch College and NYU Polytechnic (where her sister Consuelo played), she decided to pursue her life-long dream of competing on a collegiate level at Academy of Art.

“I expect the level of play is going to be much harder [in NCAA Division II], but at the same time, it's going to be fun,” Aranda said. “I know it will take a lot of dedication, especially since I'm not gonna be able to come back home on every vacation, but I think it will be worth it.”

Irene, the daughter of Maria Nahoul and Armando Aranda, will join Academy of Art University this fall as a student in the School of Industrial Design.