Nuggets tie program mark with 4 ITA All-Americans

NEW ORLEANS — The women of Xavier University of Louisiana matched a program record with four players — Mariia Borodii, Angela Charles-Alfred, Charlene Goreau and Yi Chen Pao — on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association NAIA All-America team for 2017-18.
     
Student-athletes qualified for All-America by being top 20 in singles or top 10 in doubles in the end-of-season ITA NAIA national rankings May 23. The ITA announced its All-America teams Wednesday.
     
Borodii, a freshman from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, was No. 2 in singles and No. 3 in doubles with Pao, a sophomore from Taichung City, Taiwan. Charles-Alfred, a freshman from Saint-Pierre, Martinique, was No. 12 in singles and No. 4 in doubles with Goreau, a junior from Toulouse, France. Goreau was No. 9 in singles and made ITA All-America for the second time in three years.
     
The only other season the Gold Nuggets produced four ITA All-Americans was in 2013-14. They had none a year ago.
     
XULA and national champion Georgia Gwinnett were the only women's teams with three singles players in the final top 15.
    
In the ITA's South Region rankings, Borodii was second, Goreau eighth and Charles-Alfred 10th in singles. Among doubles teams in the South, Borodii and Pao were third, and Goreau and Charles-Alfred were fourth.
     
Fueled by a school-record 16-dual match win streak, the Gold Nuggets reached the semifinals of the NAIA National Championships in May. Prior to that tournament, Borodii was named ITA NAIA National and Region IV (South) Rookie of the Year, and Goreau was chosen Region IV Player to Watch.

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