Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Gold Nuggets snap Davenport's 20-dual winning streak

MOBILE, Alabama -- Top-ranked Xavier University of Louisiana got doubles and singles victories from Nour Abbes and Kourtney Howell in a 5-2 decision against Davenport in the second round of the NAIA Women's Tennis National Champipnship on Wednesday.

The Gold Nuggets (16-6) will play ninth-ranked Northwood (Fla.) at 9 a.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals.

Xavier ended the 20-dual win streak of 16th-ranked Davenport (23-5Abbes, the Wilson/ITA NAIA National Rookie of the Year, and Simone-Alyse Ewell defeated Puck Luttikhuis and Marcie Kooyers 8-1 at No. 2 doubles to put Xavier ahead to stay.  Howell and Brion Flowers gave the Nuggets a 2-0 lead when they defeated Alyssa Fuentes and Emily Spiech 8-2 in a matchup of NAIA top-10 teams.

Abbes improved to 15-0 in singles this season -- and gave Xavier a 3-1 lead -- when she defeated Fuentes 6-0, 6-1 at the top flight. Howell made it 4-1 when she beat Spiech 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2.

Amber Brown, who received her bachelor's degree from Xavier on Saturday, ended the dual when she beat Montserrat Elizondo 6-0, 6-1 at No. 5. Xavier led the two matches still on court.

"The top of the lineup took care of business as usual in singles and doubles," XU coach Alan Green said. "We're looking for the entire lineup to play that way. That's what we're going to need the rest of the week. We have no margin of error for the rest of this tournament."

Northwood advanced with a 5-4 victory against eighth-ranked Vanguard.

NOTES: This is the first XU women's team in any sport to reach the NAIA quarterfinals in consecutive years . . . Xavier reached the semifinals in 2013 . . . Xavier defeated Northwood 6-3 at a neutral site in Florida during the 2013 regular season . . . Abbes is 10-0 with Ewell, whose doubles win streak is 17 . . . Fuentes and Spiech had won 19 of their last 20 doubles matches before losing to Howell and Flowers . . . The Nuggets are 5-0 all-time at nationals against teams from the Midwest.

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