No. 11 Academy of Art versus No. 13 Azusa Pacific Final Results

SURPRISE, Ariz. – Continuing their historic 2018 season, Academy of Art is now headed to the PacWest Championship Final for the second time in program history. In order to get there, they had to fight their way through No. 13 Azusa Pacific, who they soundly defeated 5-2.
 
The Urban Knights paved their way to success by sweeping the doubles category to open Friday morning's match. Juniors Monika Stanikova and Paula Alcantara were the first to finish, winning their match at the third position by the score of 8-3. No. 14 Alma Thell-Lenntorp and Klara Thell-Lenntorp were faced with an early hill to climb in their first doubles contest against No. 33 Toby Miclat and Petra Ivankovic. After trailing early, the twins came all the way back to win 8-5, taking their 15th match in 16 contests against Division II opponents this season. Junior Taisiia Andrieieva and sophomore Mariacristina Andrisani claimed the Urban Knights' third point, also winning their match by the score of 8-5.
 
Moving into singles, ART U needed just two points to secure their spot in the final and APU was not going to make it easy. The Cougars quickly won at the first and fifth positions and were looking to come back in fourth singles after forcing the match to go into a third set. However, the Urban Knights would not be denied as Alcantara made quick work of her opponent in sixth singles with a 6-0, 7-5 win. However, it was Andrisani who provided the clincher: after winning the first set 6-3, APU's Kara Hinton kept things close in the second. Nevertheless, Andrisani managed to emerge victorious with a 6-4 score in the second set.
 
The only team standing in ART U's way for their first-ever PacWest title is No. 2 Hawaii Pacific. The Sharks and Urban Knights have created quite the storied rivalry over the years, including Academy of Art being narrowly edged by HPU 5-4 earlier this season. However, the affair between the two schools dates back to the 2014 NCAA Regionals when ART U lost to the Sharks for the first of three times at NCAA Regionals matches. The following season, the Urban Knights obtained revenge when they upset HPU in the semifinals of the 2015 PacWest Championship. This was the program's first-ever victory over their opponent from the Aloha State and it was the last time that ART U has received a berth into the conference final. With a No. 2 regional ranking, the Urban Knights hosted Hawaii Pacific at Regionals two weeks later, but fell 5-2 after a tightly-contested match. Fast forward to 2017, ART U fell to the Sharks in the PacWest semis which set up another Regionals showdown at HPU. Despite keeping things close, the Knights fell once more, this time by the score of 5-3.
 
Academy of Art will have a chance for revenge when they face off with Hawaii Pacific on Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m.

"Today was another great team effort by the Urban Knights," said head coach Clarisse Baca. "Taking a 3-0 lead after doubles definitely gave us a confidence boost going into singles. However, we knew that Azusa Pacific was a strong team and that they were going to fight back until the end. Mariacristina came along with a huge clinch and we are both happy and excited to get to the final!"