Nicholls beats Xavier men and women in dual opener
January 21, 2008

Results: Men    Women

NEW ORLEANS — Despite winning both No. 1 singles matches, the Xavier University of Louisiana tennis opened the dual-match portion of its schedule Monday with losses to Nicholls State.

Nicholls, an NCAA Division I member also playing its first dual, beat NAIA member Xavier 5-4 in the men's match and 6-3 in the women's at the University of New Orleans Wow Café Tennis Center.

"I was proud of the way both our teams fought through some cold and windy conditions," said Xavier's Alan Green, who coaches the Gold Rush and Gold Nuggets. "We gave Nicholls much tougher matches than we did last year. I hope we can build on this and get better each time we play."

Xavier's Miroslav Vukicevic defeated Radu Ionescu 6-7 (9-7), 6-3, 1-0 (10-8) in the No. 1 men's singles match. Newcomer Anastesia Opata also produced a victory at No. 1 women's singles when she beat Florina Nosca 6-3, 6-4.

Xavier got its other men's points from No. 5 Mario Myles and No. 6 Vusumzi Kempele in singles and from Kempele and Terry Richardson at No. 3 doubles. The Nuggets" Dominique Bell, a first-team NAIA All-American this past season, won her No. 2 singles match and teamed with Opata to beat Nosca and Melissa Harrison 8-5 at No. 1 singles.

In 2007 Xavier lost 7-0 to Nicholls in the women's match and 6-1 in the men's.

Xavier's next matches will start at 11 a.m. Saturday against Southern at the UNO courts. Both the men's and women's teams will compete. Xavier is playing all home matches this year at UNO.