NEW ORLEANS -- Xavier University of Louisiana's Nour Abbes remained unbeaten as a collegiate singles player by defeating Georgia Gwinnett's Valeria Podda 6-3, 6-2 Sunday to win the women's title of the ITA/USTA NAIA South Regional Championships at XU Tennis Center.
The victory qualified Abbes -- a sophomore who is 26-0 at Xavier -- for the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships at Sumter, S.C., from Oct. 9-12. Abbes missed qualifying in doubles when she and Carmen Nelson lost 6-0, 7-5 to Auburn Montgomery's Claudine Maheu and Alice Baudeign in the final.
It's the second straight year that the Gold Nuggets qualified for the National Small College Championships and the first time in singles. Xavier's men qualified in singles and doubles in 2011.
The singles final was a rematch of the No. 2 and 3 players from the 2013-14 ITA NAIA postseason ranking. Abbes defeated Podda by the same score at XU on April 26 when Xavier beat Georgia Gwinnett in the championship dual of the NAIA Unaffiliated Group 2 Tournament.
On Sunday, Podda broke Abbes' serve to tie the first set at 3. Then Abbes won nine of the next 11 games and broke Podda's serve 5-of-6 times.
"I felt really good during the singles final," Abbes said. "I think I played some very good tennis, and I felt confident."
"I can't say enough good things about Nour and what she has accomplished in such a short time at Xavier," XU coach Alan Green said.
Rain shortly before 1 p.m. forced Xavier, the host school, to move the remaining matches downtown to the indoor courts at the Hilton Riverside. It was there that both doubles champions and the men's singles champion were decided.
Abbes and Nelson, seeded fourth, dropped the first doubles set in 19 minutes, then put the outcome in doubt when they rallied from a 3-2 deficit to take a 5-4 lead. But Maheu and Baudeign, who were unseeded, won the final three games.
"The fact that we had to play doubles indoors made us lose the rhythm," Abbes said. "The indoor courts were fast, so we didn't play our best tennis until 3-2 in the second set but it was too late, because AUM was very confident."
Abbes defeated AUM's sixth-seeded Paula Diaz 6-0, 6-1 in the singles semifinals.
In men's doubles, Xavier's Kevin Chaouat and Tushar Mandlekar lost 8-5 in the semifinals to AUM's third-seeded Nicolas Pinones and Miguel Grifol.
Georgia Gwinnett's top-seeded Jordan Cox defeated third-seeded teammate Matias Hatem 6-4, 6-2 in the men's singles final. Georgia Gwinnett's unseeded Connor Clements and Lachlan McPhee beat Pinones and Grifol 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 for the men's doubles title.
"I'm proud of our effort throughout this tournament," Green said. "My guys played well overall, and Tushar to me had a really good tournament. We just have to keep working because the team national champions will come out of this region next spring."
NOTES: It was the second straight year that Xavier played host to the South Regional . . . The singles title was Abbes' second in as many tournaments this fall. She won the A-flight main draw of the HBCU Championships on Sept. 20 . . . Abbes is 21-4 at XU in doubles and has played with three partners . . . It was the first time since that Xavier competed at the Hilton Riverside since men's and women's dual matches against Mobile in February 2009 . . . After Abbes competes at nationals, Xavier's final fall tournament will be Oct. 24-25 in the Big Easy Classic at the University of New Orleans.
Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAATHLETICS
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
XULAATHLETICS
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
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