Friday, September 27, 2013

XU's regional seeds: 2 doubles teams, 4 singles players

Brion Flowers and Kourtney Howell
Top Seeded Doubles Team
NEW ORLEANS -- Xavier University of Louisiana's Kourtney Howell and Brion Flowers are the top-seeded women's doubles team in the USTA / ITA NAIA South Regional Championships, which will begin Friday.

The three-day event will be played at the XU Tennis Center and City Park/Pepsi Tennis Center. It is the second fall tournament for the Gold Nuggets and Gold Rush.

Howell and Flowers were 23-11 last season, including six victories against NCAA Division I opponents, were No. 3 in the ITA's postseason rankings of NAIA doubles teams and were selected All-America. They have a first-round bye and will play their round-of-16 match late Friday afternoon, probably at City Park.

Howell is seeded third and Flowers fifth in singles.

Also seeded from Xavier are No. 4 Kyle Montrel and No. 6 Nikita Soifer in men's singles and the doubles team of Montrel and Tushar Mandlekar, who are fourth. Montrel and Soifer were All-America last season.

The other top seeds are from Auburn Montgomery. Nicolas Pinones is No. 1 in men's singles and top-seeded in doubles with Miguel Grifol. Jade Curtis is top-seeded in women's doubles.

Curtis and Morgane Zowczak defeated Howell and Flowers in the doubles final of last year's South Regional.

The majority of Friday's matches will be played at City Park. But Gold Rush fans can watch XU's Adam Albrecht and Vincenzo Ciccone in 9 a.m. first-round matches on campus. Albrecht will play Point's Alonso Treviso, and Ciccone will face AUM's Josh Reason.

Sunday's finals will be played at Xavier.

Joining Xavier, AUM and Point in the eight-school event are Belhaven, Brenau, Georgia Gwinnett, Loyola and William Carey.

Main-draw champions in singles and doubles will qualify for the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships at Fort Myers, Fla., from Oct. 10-13.

tournament site: http://www.xula.edu/athletics/tennis

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
XULAATHLETICS

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