Vanguard ousts Nuggets at NAIA National Championship

MOBILE, Alabama — Vanguard avenged two regular-season singles losses and defeated Xavier University of Louisiana 6-3 Tuesday in the opening round of the NAIA Women's Tennis National Championship.

The Lions (10-14), ranked 15th in the coaches poll and seeded 16th in the tournament, will play defending champion and top-seeded Auburn Montgomery (22-2) in the second round at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The Gold Nuggets, ranked 20th and seeded 17th, finished 7-22 after their sixth trip to nationals in eight seasons.

Gabriele Allford and Ashley Tebeau, both straight-sets singles losers in Vanguard's 5-4 home victory against Xavier on April 5, reversed those outcomes to help the Lions hand the Nuggets their first opening-round loss at nationals. Alford beat Nicole DeLoach 6-1, 6-3 at the No. 4 flight, and Tebeau defeated Ashley McGill 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6.

Xavier never led in the dual, and Vanguard took the lead for good at 2-1 when Allford and Tebeau defeated McGill and Jordyn Goody 8-2 at No. 3 doubles. The Lions clinched when Petronella Lindahl beat Goody 6-3, 6-3 at No. 5 singles.

The Nuggets got their points from DeLoach and Kourtney Howell, who beat Ekaterina Gabashvili and Petronella Lindahl 8-1 at No. 2 doubles; Amber Brown, who defeated Gabashvili 6-2, 6-4 at No. 3 singles; and Amanda Materre, who rallied past Nina Pudar 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2.

DeLoach and Howell closed the season with seven consecutive doubles victories. Brown avenged a straight-sets loss to Gabashvili from April. Materre became the fourth Gold Nuggets freshman to win in singles at nationals — joining Dominique Bell (2004), Marian Lang (twice in 2009) and Carmen Nelson (2010) — and earned her sixth straight singles victory.


Howell lost 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (10-6) to Gabriela Bergmanova, ranked second by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, at the top singles flight.

The Gold Nuggets entered the tournament 5-0 in first-round matches. It's the first time they failed to reach the second round.

It was the final collegiate competition for McGill, a fifth-year senior who graduated from Xavier on Saturday and competed at nationals in tennis and basketball. The other five Nuggets are scheduled to return next season.

Xavier's men (17-7), ranked seventh and seeded seventh, had a first-round bye and will play ninth-ranked and 10th-seeded Point Loma Nazarene (13-10) in the second round at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Point Loma defeated 23rd-seeded Mobile 8-1 Tuesday.

NOTES: There were no first-round women's or men's upsets. There were two 5-4 decisions — Indiana Wesleyan's women beat Robert Morris (Chicago), and Belhaven's men defeated Campbellsville. Both duals matched the 15th and 18th seeds . . . The NAIA announced a three-year contract extension with the Mobile Area Tennis Association to keep the women's and men's tournaments in Mobile through 2016. The date of next year's tourneys will be May 14-18.

Results

NAIA National Championship (seedings in parentheses) First Round — 9 a.m. on Tuesday, May 15 Vanguard (16) d. Xavier (17) 6-3 William Carey (9) d. Indiana Southeast (24) 9-0 Shorter (12) d. Bethel (Kan.) (21) 9-0 SCAD Savannah (13) d. Nebraska Wesleyan (20) 9-0 Lewis-Clark State (14) d. Northwestern Ohio (19) 9-0 Lindsey Wilson (11) d. Spring Hill (22) 9-0 Southern Nazarene (10) d. Missouri Valley (23) 7-2 Indiana Wesleyan (15) d. Robert Morris (Chicago) (18) 5-4 Second Round — 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 16 Auburn Montgomery (1) vs. Vanguard (16) Concordia (Calif.) (8) vs. William Carey (9) Azusa Pacific (5) vs. Shorter (12) Oklahoma Christian (4) vs. SCAD Savannah (13) Embry-Riddle (Fla.) (3) vs. Lewis-Clark State (14) Point Loma Nazarene (6) vs. Lindsey Wilson (11) Brenau (7) vs. Southern Nazarene (10) Fresno Pacific (2) vs. Indiana Wesleyan (15) Quarterfinals — 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 17 Semifinals — 9 a.m. on Friday, May 18 Championship — 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 19 Xavier at Nationals (5-6) May 17, 2004 (first round): Xavier 8, Lee (Tenn.) 1 May 18, 2004 (second round): Auburn Montgomery 5, Xavier 0 May 16, 2005 (first round): Xavier 9, Indiana Southeast 0 May 17, 2005 (second round): Brenau 5, Xavier 0 May 12, 2008 (first round): Xavier 7, McKendree 2 May 13, 2008 (second round): Vanguard 5, Xavier 1 May 12, 2009 (first round): Xavier 8, Union (Ky.) 1 May 13, 2009 (second round): Berry 5, Xavier 3 May 18, 2010 (first round): Xavier 6, Indiana Wesleyan 3 May 19, 2010 (second round): Auburn Montgomery 5, Xavier 0 May 15, 2012 (first round): Vanguard 6, Xavier 3

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
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