Match Results

Surprise, AZ -- The Academy of Art University women's tennis team found out their opponent only 12 hours before the start of the PacWest Conference Tournament, but it didn't seem to matter to them, as they romped to a quick 5-0 victory over Point Loma Nazarene University. The Urban Knights swept doubles play and were ahead in a majority of their singles matches before they secure the five match wins needed to move on to the second round. 

"We played some of our best tennis today. Everyone was ready to go and we got the job done," said head coach Beth Daub. "We came out very strong in doubles. Being up 3-0 going into singles was huge for us and gave us the confidence we needed. We're looking forward to the semifinals tomorrow."

Continuing the dominance they showed against the Sea Lions earlier this year, the Knights won three straight doubles matches to start the day. The first doubles duo of Nina Gajdosikova & Daniela Amelunge Antelo defeated Hope Penner & Regina von Koch 8-2, while it was Annika Schneider & Michelle Dandik Zaale beating Kaitlyn Murray & Preethika Venugopal 8-1 in third doubles for their 11th straight. Lucia Zavarcikova & Jenny Johansson battled out the final win in second doubles, an 8-6 victory over Maika Adair & Hillary Ramage to move to 16-1 on the season. 

Up 3-0 and only needing two singles wins to take the day, the Urban Knights went to work. It was the senior who finished first, as Amelunge Antelo defeated Murray 6-2, 6-4 in fifth singles. Academy of Art was up in four of the five other singles matches and it became a race to the finish, but Dandik Zaale was the victor, working around a tiebreaker in the first set and then cruising in the second to win 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 over Penner to send the Knights onward. 

BYU-Hawaii beat Dominican 5-0 in the other opening match, meaning that the Knights and the Seasiders will face off for the second time in 2014 tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. ART U gave BYU-Hawaii a good fight in arguably their best match earlier this year, taking them to the brink and falling only after a number of three-set matches went the other way late in the game.