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San Francisco, CA - After six straight wins to start the year, the Academy of Art University women's tennis was felled for the first time in 2013 by a familiar foe. Fresno Pacific, which is in year two of three of the process to full NCAA membership that the Urban Knights completed last year, came into San Francisco and, despite the Knights' solid singles play, handed them a 6-3 defeat at the Bay Club on Thursday afternoon. Amal Ben El Hadj and Jenny Johansson both stayed undefeated on the year in singles play despite the team loss. 

"Our match today was an improvement over the matchup with Fresno Pacific last year," said Peach. "They're a solid team. I'm not thinking that we lost the match, but that we're not playing the way we want. Things are getting tougher now, and it's time to step up."

The Urban Knights, who had won an overwhelming number of their doubles matches so far, which head coach Jerry Peach says is the key for winning the day, struggled against the Sunbirds, who had a long tradition of NAIA success before making the jump to the PacWest. Marie Boura & Petra Jurova defeated Daniela Amelunge Antelo & Nina Gajdosikova to give the first singles point to FPU, and the team of Erika Januskova & Katarena Paliivets did the same to Michelle Dandik Zaale & Lucia Zavarcikova. ART U's third doubles team of Johansson & Ben El Hadj defeated Anna Mikhaylova & Nicole Simoni rather handily by a score of 8-2, but the Sunbirds came out with a 2-1 advantage.

Heading into singles play, the Knights needed a comeback, but it was not going to happen against a Fresno Pacific team that had jumped the Knights in the year's second NCAA regional rankings. Zavarcikova was dropped by Boura in first singles, and Dandik Zaale also fell to Jurova in the second spot. Amelunge Antelo was also dispatched for the clinching fifth point against Paliivets. As mentioned before, Ben El Hadj in the fourth slot (6-3, 6-2) and Johansson in the fifth (6-1, 6-4) stayed undefeated and earned back two points for the Knights.

The longest match of the day took place between Fresno Pacific's Erin Carlson and ART U freshman Tamara Kenia, who made their first serve before doubles play even concluded and were the last match going at the end of the day. It was the only match to not go straight sets, as Kenia took the first set 6-2. Carlson came back and won the second set 6-4, and then at long last the third set by a final of 7-6.

"In singles, I felt very good, as I have all year, especially at four, five, and six," said Peach. "We need some people to stand up and play stronger so they get into that singles lineup. We'll keep working at it, but tomorrow we'll have practice and Saturday we have Stanislaus, and that's what I'm looking forward to."

The Urban Knights will continue the homestand against Cal State Stanislaus, hosting the Warriors on Saturday with doubles play starting at 12:00 PM.