Auburn Montgomery teams shut down Xavier again

NEW ORLEANS, La. — Auburn Montgomery continued its tennis dominance of Xavier University of Louisiana, beating the Gold Rush 9-0 and the Gold Nuggets 7-0 Saturday at City Park.

AUM is 10-0 the last eight seasons against XU's men and 7-0 the last seven seasons against XU's women.

The closest matches were in the men's dual, where XU singles players Zach Taylor and Steffen Giles-Osborn split sets. But both lost third-set super tiebreakers — Bence Toth beat Taylor 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (10-4) at No. 2, and Loic Didavi defeated Giles-Osborn 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (10-4) at No. 3 in a matchup of top-30 NAIA singles players.

Bruno Savi and Claudio Andrade, the NAIA's top-ranked doubles team, beat Giles-Osborn and Sean Richardson 8-2 at No. 2.

In the women's dual Xavier's Carmen Nelson lost 6-2, 6-3 to ninth-ranked Jade Curtis at No. 2 singles in the Gold Nuggets' most competitive match. The Lady Senators won all 12 sets, seven without dropping a game.

AUM's men are ranked third in the NAIA and the defending national champion, and the women are fourth. Both teams are 14-2. Xavier's men (11-6) are eighth, and the women (3-12) are receiving votes and 27th overall.

Both Xavier teams will play Fisk in Gulf Coast Athletic Conference duals at 1 p.m. next Saturday at City Park.

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
Xavier University of Louisiana
Visit: XULA Athletics

Xavier Gold Rush win, Gold Nuggets lose at AUM Invitational

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (March 11, 2011) — Hassan Abbas, Steffen Giles-Osborn and Sean Richardson won in doubles and singles Friday, leading NAIA No. 8 Xavier University of Louisiana to a 6-0 men's tennis victory over Georgetown (Ky.) in the AUM Invitational.

Xavier's women, ranked 24th, suffered their fifth consecutive loss in a 5-1 decision against No. 13 Lindsey Wilson.

The Gold Rush (9-4), winless in this event a year ago, bounced back from two straight losses over the past three days. Abbas and Zach Taylor scored the first point when they defeated Benjamin Aspillaga and Jose Baeza 8-4 at No. 1 doubles. Amir Rahbar and Jonathan Aubrey made it 2-0 when they beat Carlos Del Valle and Alec Lewis 8-0 at No. 3 — it was Rahbar and Aubrey's first shutout of the season — and Giles-Osborn and Richardson completed the doubles sweep with an 8-5 decision against Gustavo Echeverria and Zach Thomas.

In singles Richardson gave Xavier a 4-0 lead when he defeated Thomas 6-0, 6-1 at No. 5. Giles-Osborn snapped his three-match singles losing streak and clinched the dual with his 6-1, 6-1 victory against Echeverria at No. 3. Soon afterward Abbas wrapped up a 6-0, 6-3 victory against Baeza at No. 2, and the other three matches were stopped with Xavier leading by a set in each.

Abbas, the Gold Rush leader in singles winning percentage and combined winning percentage last season, is 10-3 in singles and 10-3 in doubles this year.

The highlight of the Nuggets' loss to Lindsey Wilson was senior Melissa DeLoach's 6-3, 6-0 victory against Edelmira Ferri at No. 4 singles. Also playing well was freshman Amber Brown at No. 2, who won a second-set tiebreaker against Slavica Milanovic but lost 10-7 in a third-set super-tiebreaker. Milanovic was ranked 12th nationally in the preseason by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Trina Slapeka, ranked sixth in singles, beat XU's Carmen Nelson 6-2, 6-3 at the top flight. Slapeka and Milanovic, ranked eighth in doubles, beat Nelson and Brown 8-1 to score the first point of the dual.

The XU women will play Campbellsville at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, and the men will play unbeaten and fifth-ranked Oklahoma Christian at 12:30 p.m.

Results:  Men    Women

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
Xavier University of Louisiana
Visit: XULAAthletics and  GCACConf.com