Match Results

Photo Gallery (images by Rob Garcia & Evan Aczon)

San Francisco, CA -- The Academy of Art women's tennis team faced stiff competition in their first match since being rained out twice, and the Golden Eagles of Cal State Los Angeles continued to fly high, putting ART U in an early hole and winning the day 7-2. Jenny Johansson and Amal Ben El Hadj had solid days for the Urban Knights, as both won their singles matches in straight sets against their CSULA opponents at the San Francisco Tennis Club.

"We're supposed to be learning something about tennis and about ourselves every time we come out here and play," said head coach Jerry Peach. "We're still learning, and we have to make sure that every match we play has something we can take away from it so we can get better."

The No. 17 Golden Eagles started off by sweeping doubles play. Christie Lau and Larn McShane, the 13th-ranked doubles pair in the country, defeated Kunkanda "Cartoon" Phukchampa and Ben El Hadj 8-3. Leora Hammerich and Jill Sangria followed suit, downing Diane Phan and Daniela Amelunge Antelo 8-5, and Tiffany Leung and Maria Xavier won against ART U's Johansson and Paola Correa Fe 8-6. The Knights played tough and faced up against the competition, getting many chances to convert, but were unable to get the points needed to get the win.

"Our doubles play still isn't where we want it to be," said Peach. "It was encouraging to see our number three team come together, but our other teams had their chances and couldn't pull it together. It's hard to go down 3-0 and come back from that. You can come back, but you have to play flawlessly, and we didn't do that today."

Lau, who was ranked #22 in the country in singles, took down Phukchampa 6-3, 6-2 in a long battle. Ben El Hadj ground out a 7-5, 6-1 victory over McShane, fighting off a stomach ailment which forced her to take a break in the second set before finishing off the match. But Hemmerich downed Amelunge Antelo 6-0, 6-3, to clinch the match for the Golden Eagles.

Despite that, there were still two matches that continued on to finish the day. Maria Xavier defeated Maria "Belen" Tenorio 6-3, 6-3 in a drawn out affair, leaving the final match between Johansson and Tiffany Leung. With both teams looking on, Johansson and Leung battled it out. Johansson finished the day on a high note, winning the first set 6-3, and ending strong for ART U, getting a 6-1 victory in the second set to win in straight sets.

"Jenny played very strong. When the other girl starts playing hard, you've got to play hard with her," said Coach Peach. "You can't let them get up and run. She's learning and she looked really good out there."

From here the Knights don't have an easy road in front of them. Grand Canyon, BYU-Hawaii, and Hawaii Pacific all rank in the top of the Western Region, and are possible opponents for ART U in the PacWest Tournament, which is coming up fast.

"Competition doesn't get any easier from here. The teams that we're shooting for aren't going to be any easier," Peach said. "They're all ranked and we have to take away that you have to think about the things that went well and the things that didn't go well and apply those lessons at a team. We're better than we played today."