SURPRISE, Ariz. – Moving into a Pacific West Conference Quarterfinal matchup against No. 3 seed and nationally-ranked No. 43 Concordia after topping No. 11 seed Dominican yesterday, Academy of Art women's tennis battled tough against one of the conference's top seeds but saw CUI come away victorious by a 4-0 final. 

Aiming to return to the PacWest Championship Semifinals for the second consecutive year, the Urban Knights (8-7) started the battle against the Golden Eagles (15-2) in doubles action with CUI taking the first of the three matches on court three. There, it was the tandem of Alyssa Zayat and Alicia Da Re picking up the victory over the ART U pair of redshirt sophomore Aitana Comas Adam and sophomore Paulina Alvarez, 6-2.

Academy of Art extended the doubles battle after the duo of junior Yun "Nicole" Shiau and sophomore Maria Vittoria Casucci produced a 6-4 decision over their opponents Jessica Bear and Tiffany Carrillo on court two, turning all focus to the first court to determine which team would take the early edge. It took one extra point, but walking away victorious was the CUI couple of Heather Richards and Sophie Rachor after they outlasted sophomores Julia Ortega and Erica Hellbe, 7-5. 

Holding the advantage, the Concordia lead quickly grew from 1-0 to 3-0 thanks to a pair of ART U retirements on courts six and two. That left the Golden Eagles needing to win just one more singles victory, which they accomplished on court three where Carrillo earned a straight sets victory over Hellbe, 6-0, 6-3. 

All other matches remained unfinished, though Shiau had captured a win in the first set against Zayat on court four with their score sitting at just 6-4, 0-0. Meanwhile, Alvarez was on her way to forcing a tie-breaking third set in her matchup against Bear on court five, with the match coming to a halt at 1-6, 5-2. 

With the loss, the Urban Knights will now move into the consolation portion of the bracket with the hopes of advancing to the battle for fifth place, and ART U will start that quest against UH Hilo beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday. ART U matched up once with the Vulcans during the season, in what was a 6-1 Academy of Art victory on Lung Cancer Awareness Day back on Feb. 28.