2014-15 Schedule

San Francisco, CA – Coming off back-to-back Pacific West Conference Tournament Championships and two subsequent trips to the NCAA Tournament, ART U Women's Basketball steps into a rigorous 28-game campaign in 2014-15. Head coach LaNay Larson and the Urban Knights officially start their journey on November 14.

"We put together a very challenging preseason schedule that is made up of top teams from the west region in order to give us a chance to see where we are early on," Coach Larson said.

Following a Nov. 7 exhibition against NCAA Division I University of Nevada, Academy of Art begins with Cal State Monterey Bay (Nov. 14) and Simon Fraser (Nov. 15) in the Notre Dame de Namur Classic Tournament. The Knights battled SFU twice during the 2013-14 regular season and would have faced The Clan in the NCAA West Region semifinals had ART U defeated Montana State-Billings.

An important non-conference matchup ensues with Cal Poly Pomona, NCAA West Regional host and champion last season, who reached the Final Four before falling to Bentley. The highly-anticipated contest takes place Nov. 19 inside Kellogg Gym in Pomona.

"We play a number of teams that made the NCAA tournament last year, the most high profile being Cal Poly Pomona who advanced to the NCAA Final Four," Coach Larson said. "They have a great squad returning and have been ranked as high as #1 in the country by some preseason polls. We are looking forward to the challenges that await in our games early on."

Three days later on Nov. 22, the Urban Knights will be at Cal State Stanislaus as they continue to move through a California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) non-conference season. The first ART U home game will be against Cal State Dominguez Hills on Nov. 24. The Knights and Toros were separated by just four points in their matchup last season and it was CSUDH who won the CCAA Championship Tournament, but fell to Chico State in the Regional quarterfinals.

One last non-conference roadtrip, to the UC San Diego Thanksgiving Tournament, will feature matchups against UC San Diego (Nov. 28) and Cal State San Bernardino (Nov. 29). The Tritons closed out last season by winning five of their last six games to reach the CCAA Tournament, but fell to Cal State Los Angeles in the opening round.

"I definitely don't think we are going to surprise anyone non-conference," Coach Larson said. "Teams are excited to play us and that says a lot about the strides we have made as a program. Each game is going to be extremely tough and we will have to stay focused and bring our best game every night in order to have a good non-conference."

The start of December brings the first PacWest Conference action for Academy of Art with a trip back to Belmont and Notre Dame de Namur first up on Dec. 6. The Knights then play four of their next five games at home with the final non-conference pairing, a contest against Northwest Nazarene, kicking things off on Dec. 12. NNU finished shy of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament last year, going 15-11 overall.

Southern California comes north next with California Baptist (Dec. 16) and Azusa Pacific (Dec. 20) in town. ART U met the Lancers three times last season, winning on each occasion and prevailing 88-76 over CBU in the PacWest Championship Tournament title game. Though APU could not participate in the conference tournament due to their pending NCAA status, the Knights will remember that it was the Cougars who broke their 11-game win streak to cap the 2013-14 regular season.

A trip to Utah for a New Year's Eve matchup with Dixie State follows on Dec. 31, pairing the Knights with another team they defeated on three occasions last year including the semifinal round of the PacWest Tournament. After returning home to face Bay Area rival Dominican on Jan. 3, ART U makes their way south to rematch California Baptist (Jan. 10) and Azusa Pacific (Jan. 12) as well as take one Point Loma (Jan. 14) for the first time since topping the Sea Lions 81-70 this past February.

Academy of Art then opens a lengthy homestand in which they play Chaminade (Jan. 19), Hawaii Pacific (Jan. 22), BYU-Hawaii (Jan. 24), Dixie State (Jan. 31), and Point Loma (Feb. 2) once again. The Sharks used a 13-7 conference record to reach the PacWest Tournament last season, but wound up falling to California Baptist in the opening round.

The Knights remain local moving into February with a trip across the bay to Holy Names on Feb. 7, a chance to host Fresno Pacific (Feb. 11), another road contest in the east bay at Dominican (Feb. 16), and finally return to Kezar Pavilion for their "Senior Knight" on Feb. 20 against NDNU.

This year, ART U's Hawaii roadtrip closes the regular season with games at UH Hilo (Feb. 24), BYU-Hawaii (Feb. 26), and Chaminade (Feb. 28) wrapping everything up. The PacWest's newest member, Concordia University Irvine, will serve as the host of the conference tournament which spans Mar. 5-7 down south.

"The biggest key will be learning how to play with a large target on our back," Coach Larson said. "Winning back-to-back PacWest Tournament Championships and last year's regular season title makes us a team to beat. The past was great, but like we have talked about in practice; the past is the past. We have new things to accomplish and it only gets harder as the expectations become greater. We are excited to see what this team can do this year and know that there are great opportunities ahead."