Alana Aweau begins her fifth year as Academy of Art University Softball assistant coach in 2018-19.
Driven to significantly surpass the program wins record by a unifying theme known as "On The 30," ART U's 2018 highlights included two double-digit win streaks, victories over three ranked opponents (
No. 15 CSUMB,
No. 17 CUI,
No. 13 SSU), the Urban Knights' first NCAA Tournament appearance,
six All-Pacific West Conference Team honorees, and their
first All-American in freshman pitcher Brooke Larsen. Academy of Art broke the program wins record by 11 with a 40-18 campaign in addition to several other single-season records including runs (266), hits (457), doubles (86), runs batted in (240), walks (163), earned run average (1.97), shutouts (16), innings pitched (387.0), and batting average against (.227). During the year, Aweau collected her
milestone 100th victory at ART U.
An influx of youth energized Academy of Art University softball throughout its 2017 season. Highlights from a squad that would produce the most
All-PacWest Team honorees in program history included the best collective single-season batting average (.315), six doubleheader sweeps, ART U's first two no-hitters against NCAA Division II opponents, and the Urban Knights' fourth time posting at least 25 victories. The team, who went 25-25 overall, collected a total of five PacWest weekly awards and put six players on the All-PacWest Team including freshman pitcher Hannah Rose Balke who set the program's single-season wins record (21) and tossed no-hitters against Notre Dame de Namur (
Mar. 10) and versus Holy Names (
Apr. 9).
In 2016, Aweau helped guide the Urban Knights through one of the most challenging schedules the program has seen to a 17-34-1 overall record and 13-19 in the
PacWest. ART U won six of its first seven conference games and later had one of its biggest highlights - breaking the program's home runs record in an
upset of No. 16 California Baptist, the highest ranked team faced since 2011. At the season's end, the Knights collected two
All-PacWest Team honors with Jessica West (First Team) and Brenna Mitchell (Third Team), a program record four
DII Easton/NFCA Scholar-Athlete awards, and 10
Academic All-PacWest selections.
Working with head coach Sonja Garnett in both coaches' first year on staff in 2014-15, the Urban Knights finished with their best record (28-26) since 2011 and a host of records broken. Among the various team milestones were the most doubles, total bases, and highest fielding percentage in program history. ART U also tied its record for athletes receiving All-PacWest honors including senior Haily MacDonald on the
All-PacWest First Team (along with
Capital One Academic All-District Team and
Daktronics All-West Region honors), Samantha Klune (
Second Team), Brenna Mitchell (
Third Team), and Nirana Singh (
Third Team).
One of the original artist-athletes to play for Academy of Art, Aweau competed for three seasons spanning 2009-2011. In her career, she hit .350, scored 75 runs, tallied 91 runs batted in, and currently holds the program's home run record (21). Aweau is one of just two ART U players to register over 100 bases in a single season which she came along with 11 homers in 2010.
As an upperclassman, she led the team to back-to-back 29-win seasons, assisted the Athletic Department in a variety of capacities in 2012, then received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Advertising that spring.
After serving as an assistant with both San Francisco's University High School and the Sorcerer Softball Club in 2013, Aweau joined Dominican in October 2013 and helped the program to its first winning season in the NCAA Division II era. The Penguins went 27-20 overall (18-5 in PacWest) and defeated nationally ranked teams such as #1 Humboldt State and #20 UC San Diego. Aweau helped the squad improve statistics in nearly every category compared to their 2013 campaign and guided the team to a 3.45 GPA.
