2024 Women’s Soccer Season Preview - Academy of Art University Athletics (2024)

Rob Garcia

Women's Soccer 9/2/2024 12:09:00 PM

Match #1
ART U Urban Knights (0-0) vs. Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros (0-0)
Thursday, September 5, 2024 at Noon
San Francisco – SF Glens at Treasure Island Field
Live Stats | Live Video

Match #2
ART U Urban Knights (0-0) vs. UC Merced Bobcats (0-0)
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 at 1:30 p.m.
San Francisco – SF Glens at Treasure Island Field
Live Stats | Live Video

Academy of Art women's soccer kicks off its 2024 season at home this week, bringing together a young roster consisting primarily of student-athletes in the first half of their respective collegiate careers. The program looks to continue establishing a strong foundation as the Urban Knights enter their third year under Head Coach Lauren Nadler.

At home for four of its first five matches, ART U journeys through a total of 17 contests in 2024 first with Cal State Dominguez Hills (Sept. 5) followed by UC Merced (Sept. 10) and Cal Poly Humboldt (Sept. 14) all in San Francisco then Fresno Pacific (Sept. 21) on the road and Jessup (Sept. 25) back in the Bay Area to conclude September's non-conference slate. A three-part Pacific West Conference road trip to Hawaii features UH Hilo (Oct. 1), Chaminade (Oct. 4), and Hawaii Pacific (Oct. 6) then Biola (Oct. 10) represents the Knights' first home PacWest opponent with Dominican (Oct. 17) and Fresno Pacific (Oct. 19) coming thereafter. The final nonconference matchup is with Lincoln (Calif.) (Oct. 22) before the month closes with Menlo (Oct. 26) and Jessup (Oct. 30). Leading up to the inaugural PacWest Conference Championship Tournament (Nov. 14 and 16), Academy of Art will host Westmont (Nov. 2), Azusa Pacific (Nov. 4), and Point Loma (Nov. 9) on Senior Day.

All returning for their respective final year in the ART U red and black are goalkeeper Nicole Peoples, midfielder Valeria Perez Rivera, defenders Haley Vaughan and Anna Maggi-Brown, and defender/forward Halldóra Einarsdóttir. Peoples enters this campaign sporting the highest career save percentage (.851) in program history after leading the team in that category in 2023 to mark her third time in her previous three seasons played. A fixture on the backline for what will be her third year as a Knight, Vaughan comes off logging the second-most minutes on team last season.

Two juniors, goalkeeper Alicia Calderon and forward Danielle Medellin, each bring multiple seasons of experience at Academy of Art with accomplishments on either end of the pitch. Calderon carries the program's highest career saves per game average (6.83), the fourth-most total saves (157), and is just 94 minutes from becoming fifth ART U goalie to play 2,000 career minutes. Meanwhile, Medellin has started all but three of her 35 matches played in an ART U uniform and, tying for the team lead with two goals scored in her most recent campaign.

The largest individual class on the team is made up of eight sophom*ores in goalkeepers Kayla Hampton and Breanna Bernardson, forwards Jade Alverio and Katie Correa, midfielders Ashley Tasev, Mackenzie Dowd, Kara Aradóttir, and forward/midfielder Alanna Del Carlo. Among the returning Knights' 2023 highlights were Tasev's two scores including one game-winner and one against eventual National Champion Point Loma, Aradóttir netting a goal less than 11 minutes into her first collegiate match, Alverio amassing the third-most minutes on the team, and Hampton not only leading the PacWest in saves per game (7.55) but ranking second in ART U single-season history.

Looking to make an immediate impact, seven freshmen start their collegiate careers as Urban Knights. Goalkeeper Aubrey Schraml, midfielders Piper Schmidt, Tegan Smith, Ryleigh Layman, Zeena Grewal, and Ruby Martinez, and defender Mia Gonzalez. The trio of Layman, Grewal, and Gonzalez come from three different high schools all within 20 miles of one another in Bakersfield that all come off winning seasons while Smith carries momentum from a 2023-24 Nevada State Championship run.

Academy of Art is mere days away combining youthful exuberance with talent at every position as ART U begins its 2024 journey overlooking the city by the bay.