Box Score
Glendale, AZ – Coming off two back to back wins, Academy of Art University women's tennis faced a tough No. 33 nationally ranked Grand Canyon team in day three of the Paseo Tournament on Saturday evening. It was a long match, and both teams battled it out, pushing themselves to the very limit. After six long hours of competing, the Urban Knights relied on two newcomers, and a veteran to earn wins for their team. But unfortunately those three players couldn't carry the rest of the team, and Art U ended up losing a heart breaker to GCU with a final score of 6-3.
“This was a really close one and by no means was this match was a runaway,” Coach Allen explained. “We look forward to playing Grand Canyon in the conference championships. The fact that we lost all three doubles matches today was a little bit of a surprise. If we win those first two doubles, we win the match.”
Singles play is where the Knights saw success. The wins rested on the backs of newcomers Kunkanda "Cartoon" Phukchampa, and Amal Ben El Hadj, and veteran Laone "Lala" Botshoma. Phukchampa came up with a big win for ART U competing in the No. 2 spot. She defeated Cecilia Vernet of GCU with scores of 6-4, 2-6, 10-5. Ben En Hadj was in the No. 3 spot and easily defeated her 'Lopes opponent, Stephanie Haldeman, 6-0, 6-4. In the No. 4 spot was Botshoma who was able to come from behind to defeat her challenger, Frederique Van de Velde, with scores of 0-6, 7-5, 10-7. But the three consecutive wins would not be enough for the Knights.
With the match tied 3-3 after singles play, it was up to doubles to be the deciding factor. After long battles, and tireless sets, the Urban Knights came up just short in their three doubles matches. After dropping those final matches, ART U ultimately lost with a final score of 6-3.
“We knew that doubles would be very important,” Coach Allen said with previous meetings against GCU in mind. “We played better doubles than we had all season long, but in the end, Grand Canyon was just too strong today. This was a tough loss as any loss is, but to a very solid team. The Knights got up for this match and were absolutely ready to play. The fight was apparent and both teams were up for it.”
After the loss, the Academy of Art University's record is at 2-2 overall, and Grand Canyon University's record improves to 2-1 overall. The Knights will compete in the final day of the Paseo Tournament tomorrow, February 13th. They are set to take on Western New Mexico starting at 3:00 PM.
Coach Allen reflected, “I was really happy with the performance of our newcomer, Amal Ben El Hadj, winning in the number three position. And our three-set specialist, Laone Botshoma, won another nail-biter in her super tiebreaker. She fell short in the doubles, but the way she played was still impressive. She has been striking the ball better than I have seen in the past few years. But we're still trying to figure out our lineup. We played [GCU] on their home courts and there were a ton of people out there. There were lots of fans with Urban Knights t-shirts on and it was nice to have equal support on both sides of the court.”
