Match Results

Glendale, AZ -- After three grueling 5-4 wins on Friday and Saturday, the Academy of Art tennis team dropped their final match of the Grand Canyon Tournament to #17 UC San Diego. The Knights seemed to have the upper hand after battling hard in the first three singles sets, but the Tritons rallied in the last three to take the match.

"All the credit goes to the kids, they fought like a dog," said head coach Jerry Peach. "I think that if we had only had more bodies, we would have come out smelling like a rose."

Academy of Art won the first doubles matchup behind Kunkanda Phukchampa and Amal Ben El Hadj, who stuck it out for an 8-6 victory to take an early lead. But the Knights had to alter their strategy after doubles play, as freshman Kinga Kurczbuch turned an ankle with the score 1-1. The injury had the Poland native shaken, and UCSD ended up taking the #2 doubles match 8-1. UCSD also took the third doubles match to finish the first section up 2-1.

"Everyone had some good moments and it wasn't really our top team on the court today," Coach Peach said. "If we just had one more doubles win, we would have taken another 5-4. It just shows that if you start it off right, everything will fall into place."

The Knights came out strong in singles play, as Phukchampa (5-7, 7-5, 10-8), Ben El Hadj (6-3, 6-1) and Jenny Johansson (3-6, 6-4, 10-4) played some intense tennis to win three in a row, and hold a 4-2 lead. But UCSD, rallied against the adjusted lineup to take the final three singles matches and win the match 5-4.

"We had quite a tournament," said Coach Peach. "My goal going in was to create team atmosphere where everyone was into it and I think we did that. Our girls were more supportive of each other than anyone else and that's exciting. When you play that much tennis in such a short time, you lose that nervousness because you're so tired that you can barely walk. I thought our girls started playing and were not holding back."

The Urban Knights will have two weeks off before facing off against Sonoma State (Feb. 25th) and Cal State Stanislaus (Feb. 26th) back in California.