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| ZACH TAYLOR |
NEW ORLEANS -- Zach Taylor rallied for a three-set victory against Hossam Meligy to clinch Xavier University of Louisiana's 6-3 men's victory Friday against the University of New Orleans at City Park/Pepsi Tennis Center.
It was the first victory ever for the Gold Rush (1-1), ranked ninth in the NAIA, against the Privateers (0-1).
UNO's women defeated Xavier 9-0.
Taylor defeated Meligy 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2 singles to give the Gold Rush a 5-2 lead. Loic Didavi, Steffen Giles-Osborn and Amir Rahbar also won in singles for Xavier.
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| LOIC DIDAVI |
"This was a great win for our guys," XU coach Alan Green said. "I was proud of the way they fought and competed. It's good to beat UNO after all these years of losing to them as a coach and as a player."
Didavi and Taylor scored the first point of the dual with their 8-4 victory at No. 1 singles against Meligy and Yoshikazu Ysa. Giles-Osborn and Sean Richardson gave the Rush a 2-1 lead with an 8-6 victory at No. 3 doubles against Dominik Kardell and Rohit Chivukula.
UNO's women (1-0) won every match against Xavier (0-2) for the second straight year. The Gold Nuggets' best shot at a point came at No. 1 singles, but the Privateers' Marta Sans rallied for a 1-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-4) victory against Kourtney Howell. XU's Amanda Materre lost 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) to Juliet Labarthe at No. 3, but no other XU singles player won more than one game.
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| KOURTNEY HOWELL |
"Our women still have some work to do," Green said. "They've got to keep fighting. I saw some improvement in doubles, but we still have to get a lot better."
The Gold Nuggets will travel to South Alabama for an 11 a.m. Saturday dual. The next Gold Rush match will start at 3 p.m. next Friday at Prairie View A&M.
By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS
NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans men's tennis team dropped their season opener on Friday evening, falling 6-3 to crosstown foe Xavier at City Park.
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| STEFFEN GILES-OSBORN |
Nationally-ranked singles' and doubles' players made their mark throughout the lineup for XULA (1-1), accounting for five of the squad's six victories on the day for a Gold Rush program that produced its first-ever victory over UNO.
XULA started off play by claiming 2 of 3 doubles' matches against the three debuting UNO doubles tandems.
At the No. 1 position, No. 46 ranked Loic Didavi and Zach Taylor fended off UNO's Yoshikazu Ysa and Hossam Meligy 8-4. The No. 21 duo of Sean Richardson and Steffen Giles-Osborn held on for an 8-6 win over Dominik Kardell and Rohit Chivukula at No. 3.
The lone Privateer victory in doubles' play came at the No. 2 position where Ricardo Campos and David Malmgren downed unranked Viktor Svoboda and Corey Huggins 8-6.
Trailing 2-1 with six singles' matches slated, UNO got a win at the No. 3 position as Ysa claimed a 6-3, 6-0 result over Huggins to knot the team score at 2-all.
XULA broke the tie over the next few minutes with wins by a pair of top 15 NAIA singles' players. The No. 7 ranked Didavi bested Campos 6-2, 6-4 at the No. 1 court with No. 13 Giles-Osborn defeating Kardell 7-6 (4), 6-3 at No. 5.
UNO would have its chances to win the dual as the remaining three matches reached a third set.
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