SAN FRANCISCO – As Academy of Art University women's basketball enters its fifth year under head coach LaNay Larson, the Urban Knights are set to face a variety of top teams from the West Region with the release of their 2015-16 schedule.

"We definitely packed this year's schedule with a lot of games and quality opponents knowing that we have a veteran squad returning," said Larson. "We start off on the road the entire non-conference season which I think will definitely make this team develop a toughness that will help us throughout the year."

Thanks to the addition of the Disney Classic Tournament, ART U will not only play more games than any previous regular season (30), the Knights also start earlier with their first opponent, New York Institute of Technology on Oct. 30. That matchup will be the first of three in the Disney Classic with Winona State (Oct. 31) and Alaska Anchorage (Nov. 1) to follow. Anchorage comes off a historic 2014-15 season in which the Seawolves went 29-2 overall record and were ranked No. 1 in the nation for the final month of the regular season before falling to Point Loma in the NCAA Tournament.

"All of the tournaments are going to be a huge test playing back-to-back," said Larson. "The Disney Classic will be especially tough playing three days in a row against very quality opponents from across the country. We will have to dig deep and be able to play a good rotation of players."
 
Academy of Art will have a taste of elite NCAA Division I talent with an exhibition against Stanford University on Nov. 7 followed by two more non-conference tournaments. The first will be hosted by Montana State-Billings with Simon Fraser (Nov. 13) and the Yellowjackets (Nov. 14) as opponents. Though both SFU and MSU Billings were NCAA Tournament teams two years ago, both finished shy of the postseason with records at .500 or just above in 2014-15.

The Notre Dame de Namur Classic Tournament follows ART U's trip to Montana and features contests against Stanislaus State (Nov. 20) and Central Washington (Nov. 21). A single road game at Cal State Dominguez Hills on Nov. 24 represents the lone non-tournament contest during the Urban Knights' preseason as the CCAA/PacWest Challenge hosted by Cal State East Bay completes the month of November. That two-day event pairs Academy of Art and Cal State Monterey Bay (Nov. 27) and host CSUEB (Nov. 28).

December brings PacWest play and it starts on the road at NDNU (Dec. 5) followed by Fresno Pacific (Dec. 12). It will not be until Dec. 17 that ART U plays its first home game inside Kezar Pavilion with local rival Dominican sharing the court. The Penguins finished just shy of the PacWest Tournament last season, going 10-10 in conference play behind BYU-Hawaii's 12-8 record. The month will be completed with a rematch hosting Fresno Pacific on Dec. 19.

Academy of Art will have a little over two full weeks before its next competition which will be a road game at Holy Names on Jan. 5. The Knights remain local through the first three matchups in January as they host Point Loma (Jan. 7) and Hawaii Pacific (Jan. 9). After defeating the aforementioned Alaska Anchorage, PLNU fell to California Baptist in the West Regional Championship game as part of a grand debut into the NCAA postseason.

ART U's first out-of-state roadtrip in conference play will be to Hawaii in mid-January. It begins on the Big Island with a Jan. 14 matchup with UH Hilo. That is to be followed by a rematch with Hawaii Pacific (Jan. 16) and the first meeting with BYU-Hawaii (Jan. 19) on Oahu. HPU won the PacWest regular season title with an 18-2 record in 2014-15 but became a casualty of CBU on the Lancers' road to the NCAA DII Championship game.

"We would love to get back in the driver's seat again, but it only gets tougher every year," said Larson. "There are no easy games and I think last year really exposed that the conference is deeper and more talented than it has ever been. We will have to be on our toes night in and night out and we can't take any breaks."

A four-part homestand ensues in late January and into early February as Azusa Pacific (Jan. 23), new PacWest addition Concordia Irvine (Jan. 27), Chaminade (Jan. 30), and Holy Names (Feb. 3) all come through Kezar Pavilion. Though APU defeated Academy of Art in last year's PacWest Tournament, ART U still defeated the Cougars twice before that and swept both the Silverswords and Hawks in three total contests. Concordia will present a new challenge after the Eagles went 23-7 overall in 2014-15 and played two rounds of the NAIA DI Tournament.

The homestand is followed by four games on the road with trips to Utah (Dixie State on Feb. 11), Southern California (Concordia on Feb. 13 and PLNU on Feb. 15), and across the Golden Gate Bridge to Dominican (Feb. 20) on tap. The regular season then concludes back home with California Baptist (Feb. 23) and NDNU (Feb. 27) coming to town. Academy of Art split with CBU last season before the Lancers made it all the way to the NCAA DII title game and fell to California University of Pennsylvania.

As Concordia is just beginning its process to gain full NCAA membership, the Eagles' CU Arena will be the site of the 2015-16 PacWest Conference Championship Tournament on Mar. 3-5. That will be followed by the West Regional section of the NCAA Tournament (Mar. 18-19), the Elite Eight (Mar. 23-28), and the DII Championship game on Apr. 4.

"Our goals remain the same every season - championships and the NCAA tournament are something we missed out on last year for the first time in three years and I know this team is hungry to get back to our initial goals," said Larson.