Xavier sweeps Jackson State to close regular season
April 12, 2008

Results: Men    Women

JACKSON, Miss. — The Xavier University of Louisiana men's tennis team, ranked 24th in the NAIA, defeated Southwestern Athletic Conference Eastern Division champion Jackson State 6-1 Saturday. It was the Gold Rush's seventh consecutive victory and its longest winning streak of the past seven seasons.

Xavier's 14th-ranked women beat Jackson State 6-1 for their 13th victory in 15 matches.

Both Xavier teams have four victories this season against NCAA Division I opponents. The Gold Rush ended the five-match winning streak of Jackson State (12-6).

Highlights for Xavier included stellar performances at No. 3 singles in both duals. For the Rush, Mikhail Vaval-Desse defeated Arturo Jimenez — who was 11-3 with a four-match winning streak — 6-4, 6-4. The Nuggets' Yuliem Dominguez beat Angela Rose, 11-2 with a six-match winning streak, 6-2, 6-1.

Jackson State's women are 9-6.

It was the regular-season finale for Xavier, whose men are 14-8 and women are 15-6. The Rush won the GCAC Tournament on Friday night to clinch an automatic berth in the NAIA Region XIII Tournament at Mount Berry, Ga., on April 25-26. But the Gold Nuggets — a 5-4 loser to Mobile in the GCAC women's final in a match which ended after 1 a.m. Saturday — will hope for one of four at-large bids. Six men's and six women's teams will compete in the region tourney.

"We handled ourselves pretty well," Xavier coach Alan Green said. "Friday was a tough day and a long one. But today we showed a lot of fight and lot of guts coming back this morning on a short rest. We played well."