Tarleton State Box | Chaminade Box

Phoenix, AZ -- The Academy of Art University women's tennis team picked up 2013 where they ended last year's historic spring season, winning the first two matches of the Grand Canyon Tournament in convincing fashion. The Urban Knights started the day off with a 7-2 victory over Tarleton State and capped it off with a twilight sweep of Pacific West Conference foe Chaminade by a score of 9-0.

"The Urban Knights keep playing well," said head coach Jerry Peach. "The team is learning to be consistent and working to become better doubles players. Our improvement as a unit depends upon our ability to play doubles at a higher level. Dual matches depend upon solid doubles play.  If the team wins 2 of 3 doubles, the victory is always in sight. On this day, the first of this trip, we won five of six doubles points, so the arrow is pointed in the right direction."

The Knights, who came into the matches today ranked 37th in the country, faced off first against #28 Tarleton State. Daniela Amelunge Antelo and Nina Gajdosikova took the first round of doubles over Karla Martinez and Ivana Zecevic by a score of 8-5, and Michelle Dandik Zaale teamed up with Lucia Zavarcikova right after to defeat their Tarleton opponents by a score of 8-2. ART U's team of Kinga Kurczbuch and Amal Ben El Hadj fell to Makenzie Mitchell and April Downing, but the all important pair of doubles victories put the Knights in good position.

That success carried over into singles play, where the Knights won five of six. Zavarcikova fell 6-4, 6-3, but the Knights won every match the rest of the way to come out victorious. Gajdosikova (6-4, 3-6, 11-9) in second singles and Amelunge Antelo (6-3, 4-6, 10-7)  in fourth singles both took three sets but Dandik in third (6-0, 6-2), Ben El Hadj in fifth (6-1, 6-2), and Jenny Johannson in sixth (6-1, 6-1) led the Knights to bring down their highest ranked opponent in the past two years.

"Everyone contributed to this team win," said Peach. "By any means of evaluating, we are playing like a team. In a word, the group has to become more consistent so we can reach our goals, but we took a giant step in the right direction today."

A few hours later, the Knights were right back at it against Chaminade in the nightcap. Coach Peach shook up the order a little bit against the Silverswords, but was met with similar results. Amelunge Antelo and Gajdosikova defeated Kimberly Takara and Jan Matsumoto 8-2, Dandik Zaale and Zavarcikova dominated their opponents 8-1, and Johansson and Sarah Lemp roughed up Isel Barba and Katherine Guerrero 8-0 to give the Knights a doubles sweep.

The Urban Knights continued building their confidence with more success in singles play. Dandik Zaale (6-4, 6-2), Gajdosikova (6-2, 6-4), and Johansson (6-0, 6-0) took the first three singles places against the Swords. Ben El Hadj (6-1, 6-0), Kurczbuch (6-2, 6-0), and Tamara Kenia (6-0, 6-0) finished the job for ART U, who improved to 2-0 on the day and on the year.

The Knights will continue the Grand Canyon Tournament tomorrow, playing Metro State on Friday at 6:00 PM Mountain Time. The tournament concludes on Saturday with another double day against Montana State University - Billings and Western New Mexico.