San Francisco, CA – Academy of Art University Men's Soccer and head coach Daniel Rosaia have officially announced the program's 2012 schedule. This fall, the Urban Knights will play 18 regular season matches highlighted by three CCAA opponents to open the year, an eight-match homestand, and ART U's first trip to Hawaii in the last two seasons.

“The foundation has been set and now we look to polish the team early and be ready for tough competition,” Coach Rosaia said. “We will need to get the new guys up to speed quickly and hope that our core of returners will be ready to go. We finished the last season strong and had a good spring. I believe we can make an impact on the league this year.”

The Knights' 2012 campaign kicks off with a trio of scrimmages against a variety of opponents. On Aug. 17, Academy of Art will play host to Pacific Union of the NAIA's Cal Pac Conference, then the ART U stays local for its Aug. 21 pairing at City College of San Francisco. Finally, Sonoma State and the Urban Knights face off in Rohnert Park on Aug. 26.

With those scrimmages complete, Academy of Art begins its fifth year of existence with a match at Cal Poly Pomona on Aug. 30. ART U has never faced the Broncos who won six of their first eight matches last season before finishing in the middle of the pack in the CCAA's South Division. The Urban Knights will then travel further south for a match at UC San Diego two days later on Sept. 1. UCSD ended up one spot above CPP in the 2011 standings, but was ousted by Cal State Dominguez Hills for a spot in the CCAA Tournament.

When ART U returns home, the Knights then commence their eight-match homestand which is the longest in program history. Academy of Art first welcomes San Francisco State on Sept. 5 and then finishes non-conference play with a pairing against Northwest Nazarene on Sept. 8. SFSU posted a 5-11-2 record last season while NNU went 6-10-1 overall.

ART U faces two of the Pacific West Conference's newest members, Azusa Pacific (Sept. 13) and Point Loma Nazarene (Sept. 15), to start conference action. In their final year with the GSAC, APU tied with Fresno Pacific for the best win-loss percentage in the conference, but was bettered by the Sunbirds for the title. PLNU went 8-8-1 overall last season. Dixie State (Sept. 20), whom the Knights defeated 3-0 for their first PacWest victory ever in 2009, then comes to town followed by Grand Canyon on Sept. 22. Dixie finished two spots ahead of the Knights in last season's PacWest standings and GCU was a win shy of the title.

“We are very excited for the upcoming season as this could be our best recruiting class yet,” Coach Rosaia said. “We are bringing in a host of young players combined with a few older more established student athletes. All this being said we look forward to the new teams in the league and welcome the challenge.”

To close out the homestand, Academy of Art plays a Dominican team (Sept. 27) with whom ART U split last year and another new PacWest addition in Holy Names (Sept. 29). The Knights, who leave the state of California just once in 2012, then head to Belmont for a matchup against Notre Dame de Namur on Oct. 4. This will be the seventh installment in a storied rivalry which saw Academy of Art take a dramatic 2-1 overtime victory at Koret Field last year.

On Oct. 13, ART U returns to Cal Baptist's home field in Riverside for the teams' second pairing in as many years. In just their first season with the PacWest, the Lancers shared the 2011 conference championship after a 17-5-1 overall record. The Knights next travel to Dominican, one of two opponents Academy of Art will face twice this year, on Oct. 18. A trip to Fresno Pacific (Oct. 20) follows where ART U meets the 2011 GSAC Champion. Prior to Hawaii, Academy of Art will kick off its final home match of the year against NDNU once more on Oct. 26.

“While respecting our opponents we will also be looking for respect and looking to do some damage in the league,” Coach Rosaia said.

The Knights' 2012 season then culminates with the teams' first roadtrip to Hawaii since their 2010 campaign. The three-match swing begins at Chaminade on Oct. 30, continues to Hawaii Pacific on the first day of November, and concludes at Hawaii Hilo on Nov. 3. The Sea Warriors shared the PacWest title with Cal Baptist while the Vulcans and Silverswords endured difficult 2011 seasons, finishing ninth and 10th respectively in conference. Few will forget that Chaminade's St. Louis Field was the site where ART U's Andrew "Boomer" Cruz scored a PacWest record five goals in one match back in 2010.

For the complete schedule click here.