Box Score

San Francisco, CA -- In a game that looked like it could be the third overtime game in four matches for the Academy of Art University women's soccer team, some late heroics from Louise Fillingham gave ART U the lead with less than nine minutes left and eventually delivered their first PacWest victory of the year over Holy Names. The game was scoreless for the first 81 minutes before Fillingham's shot off the crossbar rebounded in, and goalkeeper Rachael Rempe and the Urban Knights defense held the Hawks out of the goal for the shutout.


"I am very proud of our team today. They showed a lot of character in the second half," said head coach Aileen Nasypany. "It would have been easy to say this might be another game that might not go our way. Instead, they stay focused, followed our game plan, and put the effort in. The result is a much deserved win. The shutout is just as significant, as it instills that much needed confidence in our team defending, showing that we have the ability to achieve success on both sides of the ball."

For the second game in a row against at Bay Area opponent, neither team scored in the first half, with the Hawks narrowly out-shooting the Urban Knights 5-to-4 but each team with two shots on goal and two saves. The Knights unleashed a barrage at the end of the period, getting three shots in the span of 25 seconds, but one was blocked and the other two saved by HNU keeper Jenni Dooley, and the teams went into the half scoreless.

It remained that way for much of the second half, but the Knights carried over that offensive attack from the first period, getting a shot from Fillingham that went wide and another from Giovanni Plater that required a headlong dive from Dooley to prevent from going in. More shots from both teams continued to be prevented from finding the back of the net when the Knights went on the attack one final time.

"It was a great day for us, the win was very important," said Hanna Aronzon. "It has definitely given us confidence that we can bring to the rest of the season. Our defending and our hard work finally paid off."

A shot in the 78th minute by Marley Sutter was blocked, but following a yellow card on HNU, Hannah Emmet got a shot at 78:46 that went wide. After another blocked shot from Sutter at 80:30, Fillingham wound up from 25 yards out and fired a ball that hit off the crossbar, but had the backspin on it to curl back in and hit the back of the goal and give the Knights the lead with just over eight minutes left. They were able to hold that lead, as HNU wasn't able to get a final shot, and the Knights took their first conference win of the year home.

"It was awesome to finish with a win today after all the hard work the team has been putting in," said Sophie Meneses. "We are learning from our mistakes and successes every game and always striving to be better than we were yesterday."

The Knights will play Dominican for the second time in a week on Sunday, October 6 in San Rafael. After that they'll have their final two home games until November against Point Loma (Oct. 12) and Dixie State (Oct. 14).