Thursday, February 22, 2018

Gold Rush shut out Division I Nicholls on the road

THIBODAUX, Louisiana  — Xavier University of Louisiana men's tennis defeated NCAA Division I Nicholls State for the third straight season with a 4-0 victory Wednesday.
     
In the women's dual, Nicholls defeated XULA 4-0.
     
Samir Chikhaoui defeated Tobias Lentz 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 at No. 3 singles to clinch the Gold Rush's first-ever road shutout against a non-HBCU member of Division I. Catalin Fifea and Gabriel Niculescu clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 victory at No. 3 against Leo Santos and Alvaro Barranco Vilaltella.
    
 Chris Anders and Pierre Andrieu were first off the court with a 6-1 No. 2 doubles victory against Lewis Cox and Néstor Giribet Lopez. Catalin Fifea beat Oleksander Podgursky 6-2, 6-1 at No. 1 singles, Andrieu defeated Giribet Lopez 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 at No. 4.
     
The men were in a dogfight, but they hung in there and competed like a true team," XULA coach Alan Green said. "The match could have gone either way, so the final score does not indicate that. Our guys stepped up big at crunch time."
     
The Gold Rush, ranked second in the NAIA, are 3-6, and the Colonels are 2-2. It was XULA's second straight victory and first this season at an opponent's venue.
     
Changwei Wei clinched for the Nicholls women with a 6-4, 6-4 victory at No. 5 singles against Farah Baklouti. The Gold Nuggets led in two halted matches — Baklouti and Julia Anglin led Wei and Anastasia Kuzevanova 5-4 on the third doubles court, and Charlene Goreau led Lingfeng Gu 6-2, 5-4 at No. 2 singles.
     
The Gold Nuggets, ranked 13th, are 3-7, and the Nicholls women are 4-1.
     
XULA's men will travel to Baton Rouge, La., to play Prairie View A&M in a neutral-site dual at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, and both XULA teams will travel to Alabama to face the University of Mobile at 3 p.m. Friday. The Thursday start time was pushed back 2 1/2 hours.

Results:  Men   •   Women

Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletic Director for Communications
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
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