LAFAYETTE, Louisiana — Freshman Santiago Perez scored the only team point Wednesday for Xavier University of Louisiana in 4-1 and 4-0 men's tennis losses to NCAA Division I Louisiana-Lafayette.
The XULA men (6-4), ranked eighth in the NAIA, had won six of their previous seven dual matches, including the last three.
In the opener, Perez rallied to defeat Jan Galka 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 on the first singles court. Gabriel Niculescu, Pierre Andrieu and Chris Anders also won first sets, but Niculescu and Andrieu both lost in three. Anders's match was in the third set when Jamie Fraser clinched for the Ragin' Cajuns with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 decision against Andrieu on the fifth court.
The Cajuns are 18-5.
XULA's men and will women will travel to the Midwest to play indoors at Northwestern Ohio at noon EDT Friday and at Indiana Wesleyan at 10:30 a.m. EDT Saturday.
Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications
Department of Athletics & Recreation
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
XULAgold.com
twitter.com/xulagold
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BILLINGS, Montana — MidAmerica Nazarene scored the first nine points and did not relinquish the lead Wednesday in a 72-65 women's basketball victory against Xavier University of Louisiana in the opening round of the NAIA Division I National Championship tournament.
Jas Hill scored 14 points and Caprice Taylor 13 for the sixth-seeded Gold Nuggets (23-8), the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular-season champion.
Kechelle Figueroa, a New Orleanian, scored 17 points, Whitney Moia 14 and Jovana Jovovic 13 for the third-seeded Pioneers (25-5), who advanced to a 12:30 p.m. MDT second-round game against second-seeded The Master's.
MNU led 42-25 at halftime after Figueroa heaved in a 3 at the buzzer from about 52 feet, but XULA made it interesting thereafter, winning the third and fourth quarters and limiting the Pioneers to 23.8-percent shooting from the floor. But XULA missed 10 fourth-quarter 3s and finished 6-of-31 (19.4 percent) from behind the arc.
Freshman Da'Jha Virgil made three 3s for XULA, and she and Essence Wells scored nine points apiece.
"Started off real slow. Too slow. That was the key to the game. Our offense really struggled the first two quarters," XULA head coach Bo Browder said. "Energy was real good in the second half. Our team played hard. Our defensive pressure caused a lot of turnovers in the second half."
Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications
Department of Athletics & Recreation
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
XULAgold.com
twitter.com/xulagold
www.facebook.com/xulagold