Xavier teams defeat Loyola on City Park's new courts

NEW ORLEANS -- Xavier University of Louisiana, in the first collegiate matches on the newly dedicated hard courts at City Park Tennis Center, defeated city rival Loyola 6-3 in the women's dual and 9-0 in the men's dual Friday.

The Gold Nuggets (3-11) snapped a nine-dual losing streak, and the Gold Rush (11-5), ranked eighth in the NAIA, have won two straight and three of four.

The City Park courts were dedicated Thursday, and Xavier will play all remaining home matches there this season.

XU's women again defaulted the No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles matches because of an incomplete roster but won six of the seven completed matches. Carmen Nelson snapped her 10-match singles losing streak by defeating Loyola's Katie Beargie 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2. Nicole DeLoach clinched the dual by beating Cristiana Krtalic 6-1, 6-1 at No. 4.

Nelson and the DeLoach sisters won in singles and doubles. Melissa DeLoach did not lose a game; she and Nicole DeLoach defeated Frances Bonnin and Beargie 8-0 at No. 2 doubles, then Melissa beat Bonnin 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles.



Loyola's women (1-6) have lost six in a row, and the men (1-5) have lost five in a row. The Wolfpack's lone victory in a non-forfeited match was Claire Landry's 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-7) decision against Amber Brown at No. 1. Brown, a freshman, is 0-4 in third-set super-tiebreakers this season.

Xavier's men dropped four games in nine matches and lost their fewest games in six completed singles matches (two) since Feb. 23, 2008, against Belhaven. Zach Taylor's 6-0, 6-0 decision against Joshua Laviolette at No. 2 clinched the dual, and teammates Hassan Abbas, Sean Richardson, Amir Rahbar and Jonathan Aubrey also won 6-0, 6-0. Richardson didn't drop a game in the dual; he and Steffen Giles-Osborn won 8-0 at No. 2 doubles against Jordan Hunting and Laviolette.

Both Xavier teams will play Auburn Montgomery -- whose men are ranked third and women fourth in the NAIA -- at 4 p.m. Saturday at City Park. AUM's men are the defending NAIA champion. Xavier's Sunday duals at the University of New Orleans were postponed by mutual agreement and will be rescheduled for April.

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

Xavier Gold Rush remain eighth in the national rankings

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana maintained its program-record No. 8 position in the NAIA Men's Tennis Coaches' Top 25 Poll announced Tuesday. It's the first time an XU tennis team has been in consecutive top 10s.

The Gold Rush (10-5) have appeared in 28 consecutive top 25s dating to April 4, 2007, and it's the 19th straight time dating to April 30, 2008, that the Gold Rush are among the top 18. This is the second XU men's team of 2010-11 to make the top 10 in consecutive polls — the basketball team did it in December.

XU's men will play four times before the next poll on April 5, including three duals in as many days beginning Friday. The Gold Rush will play Loyola at 3:30 p.m. Friday and third-ranked Auburn Montgomery at 4 p.m. Saturday — both at City Park Tennis Center — and visit NCAA Division I New Orleans at 10 a.m. Sunday.

Fresno Pacific is No. 1 for the 11th consecutive poll. Embry-Riddle (Fla.) replaced Auburn Montgomery at No. 2 after defeating the Senators 7-2 on March 14. AUM is the defending NAIA champion and winner of four of the last five championships.

NAIA Men's Tennis Coaches' Top 25 Poll
(first-place votes in parentheses — records through Sunday, March 20)
Rank Team Record Points Last
1 Fresno Pacific (9) 12-2 219 1
2 Embry-Riddle (Fla.) 7-5 207 3
3 Auburn Montgomery 13-2 203 2
4 Azusa Pacific 10-3 199 4
5 Oklahoma Christian 11-1 197 5
6 Point Loma Nazarene 8-2 184 6
7 Westmont 5-4 177 7
8 Xavier 10-5 169 8
9 Concordia (Calif.) 4-8 164 9
10 Union (Ky.) 10-4 156 11
11 Graceland 3-4 145 10
12 Vanguard 4-9 142 13
13 Shorter 6-1 139 12
14 St. Thomas (Fla.) 8-2 127 14
15 Lewis-Clark State 7-7 122 15
16 Aquinas 13-2 104 19
17 Webber International 12-3 100 18
18 Cumberland 3-1 95 RV
19 Olivet Nazarene 10-0 85 21
20-tie McKendree 5-1 84 20
20-tie Campbellsville 6-4 84 RV
22 Lee (Tenn.) 1-4 69 22
23 Tennessee Wesleyan 3-2 66 16
24 Martin Methodist 4-4 62 17
25 SCAD Savannah 3-3 57 24

Others receiving votes: William Carey 42, Oklahoma Baptist 36, Lindsey Wilson 36, Huntington (Ind.) 17, Bethany (Kan.) 17, Northwood (Fla.) 8, Biola 5, Northwestern Ohio 4, Bethel (Tenn.) 1, Belhaven 1.

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

Abbas, DeLoach selected GCAC Players of the Week

Melissa DeLoach
Fort Washington, MD

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana's Hassan Abbas and Melissa DeLoach swept the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Week tennis awards for March 7-13.

Abbas, a senior from Saltaire, England, and a graduate of Bingley Grammar School and Ventura College, was 3-2 in singles and 3-2 in doubles. Abbas defeated ITA No. 33 Bryan Cox of Westmont 6-4, 7-5 in singles, and he won in singles and doubles in Xavier's 5-4 victory against William Carey at the AUM Invitational.

DeLoach, a senior from Fort Washington, Md., and a graduate of Bishop McNamara High School, won her second GCAC award of 2011 after going 2-0 in singles and 2-1 in doubles at the AUM Invitational.

The next Xavier women's match will start at 3 p.m. Tuesday against SCAD Atlanta at the University of New Orleans, and both Xavier teams will play city rival Loyola in makeup duals at 3:30 p.m. Friday at UNO.

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

Gold Nuggets lose eighth in a row, this time to Rutgers

NEW ORLEANS, LA — Rutgers completed its three-match trip to Louisiana with a 9-0 women's victory against Xavier University of Louisiana at the University of New Orleans Tennis Center.

The Scarlet Knights (8-4) won all three matches during their trip and gave Xavier (2-10), ranked 24th in the NAIA, its eighth consecutive loss.

Amy Zhang and Jennifer Holzberg defeated Amber Brown and Carmen Nelson at No. 1 doubles, and Zhang beat Brown 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. Xavier defaulted matches at No. 3 doubles and No. 5 and 6 singles for the fifth consecutive dual, and the Zhang-Holzberg doubles victory clinched for Rutgers.



Brown, a freshman, played No. 1 singles for the second time as a collegian. Teammate Melissa DeLoach, 2-0 in singles at the AUM Invitational this past weekend, lost 6-2, 6-0 to Leonora Slatnick at No. 4.

Four of the Gold Nuggets' losses during their streak are against NCAA Division I opponents.

It was the Gold Nuggets' first home match since Feb. 5 and their first-ever meeting with Rutgers. The Nuggets' next match will start at 3 p.m. Tuesday against SCAD Atlanta at UNO.

Results
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Giles-Osborn clinches Gold Rush victory vs. Crusaders

MONTGOMERY, Ala .(March 13, 2011) -- Steffen Giles-Osborn rallied Sunday for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 No. 3 singles decision against Dominik Kardell to clinch Xavier University of Louisiana's 5-4 men's tennis victory over William Carey in the AUM Invitational.

Georgetown (Ky.) defeated Xavier's women 6-3.

The Gold Rush (10-5), ranked eighth in the NAIA, never trailed, but William Carey tied the dual at 4 when Younes Hidass defeated Sean Richardson 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 at No. 5 singles. Then Giles-Osborn, ranked 24th in NAIA singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, overcame a first-set loss to score his second victory in his last six singles matches.

Giles-Osborn and Hassan Abbas won in doubles and singles for XU's men, who won two of three duals in this event. Fourteenth-ranked Giles-Osborn and Sean Richardson beat Toni Gauta and Hidass 8-2 at No. 2 doubles, and Abbas and Zach Taylor defeated Jody Claassen and Thomas Rizk 9-8 (8-6) at No. 1. Abbas gave Xavier a 3-1 lead when he beat Rizk 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2 singles.
Abbas is 4-0 in singles and 4-0 in doubles in two seasons against William Carey.

Freshman Amir Rahbar scored Xavier's fourth point with a 6-3, 6-0 decision against 50th-ranked Gauta at No. 4.

"The match was a grinder until the end," XU Coach Alan Green said. "William Carey has a very good team, and the match could have gone either way. They are very underrated and easily a top-15 team.
"The atmosphere was loud and raucous at a neutral site. We will have to deal with a team with a loud crowd and a bad taste in their mouth when we play at Carey in a few weeks. It will make for a good match, and we can't wait to play them again."

The Gold Nuggets (2-9) lost their seventh in a row and, for the fourth straight time, forfeited the No. 3 doubles match and the No. 5 and 6 singles matches because of a depleted roster. But the XU women -- specifically, sisters Melissa and Nicole DeLoach -- still won three matches, as many as they won in their previous six duals combined.

The DeLoaches won 8-0 against Emily Krick and Rhyan Martin 8-0 at No. 2 doubles. Then Nicole beat Shelby Eden 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4 singles, and Melissa followed with a 6-0, 6-2 decision over Natalie Hill at No. 3 to cut Georgetown's lead to 4-3. But 47th-ranked Adrienne Bartlett clinched for the Tigers (2-5) at No. 1 when she defeated Carmen Nelson 6-4, 6-2.

Georgetown was ranked 25th in the NAIA preseason poll and 15 points from the top 25 in last week's rankings.

The Nuggets' next match will start at 3 p.m. Wednesday against Rutgers at City Park Tennis Center, and it will be their fifth of the season against an NCAA Division I opponent. The XU men, who have played seven duals in the last 10 days, will return to competition in a 3:30 p.m. makeup March 25 against city rival Loyola at the University of New Orleans.

Xavier drops pair of duals at AUM Invitational

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (March 12, 2011) — Both Xavier University of Louisiana tennis teams lost Saturday in the AUM Invitational. The Gold Rush, ranked eighth in the NAIA, lost 9-0 to unbeaten and fifth-ranked Oklahoma Christian. The Gold Nuggets, ranked 24th, lost 5-1 to Campbellsville.

Xavier scored its lone point at No. 2 women's doubles when sisters Melissa and Nicole DeLoach defeated Stacey Drew and Kristen Hamrick 8-3.

Xavier won only three other sets. Zach Taylor of the Gold Rush won a second-set tiebreaker in a 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 1-0 (10-7) loss to Thomas Van Cauter at No. 1 singles, and the DeLoach sisters were both up a set when their dual was halted.

The Gold Rush (9-5) lost for the third time in four duals, including two losses to top-10 opponents. The XU men lost for the second time in as many seasons to Oklahoma Christian (11-0) since the Gold Rush's 5-4 victory over the Eagles in the opening round of the 2009 NAIA National Championship.

"The score of the men's match does not indicate how it was played," XU Coach Alan Green said. "This was a competitive fight and the guys played real hard. It took four hours to knock us off. I'm really proud of the fight we put up against a potential national champion. Oklahoma Christian has that good of a team."

Xavier's women extended their losing streak to six duals, their longest in Green's eight seasons. Campbellsville is 2-2.

Both XU teams will play their final duals of this event at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. The Gold Nuggets will play Georgetown (Ky.), and the Gold Rush will play William Carey. Both opponents received votes in last week's coaches polls.

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