2018-19 Women's Basketball Schedule

SAN FRANCISCO – Academy of Art University women's basketball has officially released its 2018-19 schedule as announced by new head coach Camille Williams.

"From day one, we want to instill a culture of working at a higher capacity and creating an atmosphere that breeds success," said Williams. "With each game in the PacWest Conference, we will learn more about our team's personality and ability to improve game by game. Our goal is to have our newly established culture impact our results in a positive way."

ART U starts its campaign with a pair of exhibition games on the road against NCAA Division I opponents. On Oct. 30, the Urban Knights will open at Santa Clara then, one week later on Nov. 6, Academy of Art challenges Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.

The Knights' season officially begins Nov. 9 when ART U enters into the West Region Tip-Off Classic to face Western Oregon, against whom Academy of Art is 4-0 all-time, with the Cal State East Bay serving as tournament host. The following afternoon on Nov. 10, Academy of Art meets Concordia (Ore.) in a matchup of two teams who have not met previously.

ART U next faces two teams it has not seen in nearly a decade with road contests coming at Chico State on Nov. 17 and SF State on Nov. 25. The Wildcats finished fourth in the California Collegiate Athletic Association last season, winning 17 of 28 games.

The start of PacWest play then begins in late November with the Knights hosting for the first time as Point Loma (Nov. 29) and Concordia (Dec. 1) come to Kezar Pavilion. Both the Sea Lions and Eagles reached the conference tournament last year with PLNU competing in the championship game, but falling to Hawaii Pacific. On Dec. 8, Academy of Art gets its first PacWest road game at Notre Dame de Namur, a team whom ART U has defeated 16 times in 22 previous matchups.

A trip north to Washington brings a brief departure from conference action as the Knights take on Central Washington (Dec. 10) and Seattle Pacific (Dec. 12). CWU and SPU also both qualified for their own Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament and the Falcons later appeared in the NCAA Tournament, dropping a first round pairing with UC San Diego.

"The level of competition with established programs will give us great experience on the court and help us learn more about what we need to focus on to continue to get better," said Williams.

Academy of Art then embarks upon its longest homestand of the year with six straight inside Kezar Pavilion. The stretch begins with Azusa Pacific on Dec. 19 then, in a reversal from years past, ART U hosts three Hawaii schools (HPU – Dec. 31, Chaminade – Jan. 2, UH Hilo – Jan. 4) rather than traveling to the islands. Azusa Pacific and Hawaii Pacific shared the PacWest's regular 2017-18 season title, combining to go 32-4 in conference play. Both teams' campaigns ended in the first round of the NCAA West Regional Tournament.

Balancing out the lengthy homestand, the Urban Knights next head out on the road for eight their next nine contests. They'll start with Dominican (Jan. 17) and Holy Names (Jan. 19) locally before traveling to Southern California for rematches with Concordia (Jan. 24) and Point Loma (Jan. 26). After returning north to take on Fresno Pacific (Jan. 30), Academy of Art will host Dominican (Feb. 1) then makes its way to Hawaii where ART U will challenge UH Hilo on Feb. 8, HPU on Feb. 10, and Chaminade on Feb. 12. The Knights defeated the Silverswords once last year, pushing their all-time record to 16-0 versus Chaminade.

"Going into that stretch of road games, our goal is to keep building on our confidence as a team," said Williams.

As the regular season enters its final stage, Academy of Art will host local opponents Holy Names and Notre Dame de Namur on Feb. 17 and Feb. 21 respectively. The matchup with the Argonauts will be Senior Night inside Kezar Pavilion.

Two more road contests close out the regular season as ART U goes south once more to meet Azusa Pacific on Feb. 28 and Biola on Mar. 2. The PacWest Conference Tournament then follows Mar. 7-9 across the bay with Dominican hosting this year.