Nicholls State sweeps tennis duals against Xavier
January 31, 2009

Results:  Men    Women

     THIBODAUX, La. — Opportunities were plentiful, the results disappointing. That sums up Xavier University of Louisiana's 5-2 women's tennis loss to Nicholls State on Saturday.
     Xavier won the first set in five of six singles matches, but only two Gold Nuggets — Angelina Callis at No. 2 and Colleen McArthur at No. 4 — won their matches. So the Nuggets dropped to 0-2 on the season, with both losses against NCAA Division I opponents.
     Xavier's men, playing their first dual match of the spring semester, won only two sets in a 7-0 loss to Nicholls.
     Callis, back at Xavier for her junior season after competing for South Carolina State in 2007-08, defeated Natalia Zamora 6-3 in the first set, then won the match by default when a thigh injury sidelined Zamora. McArthur won 6-3, 6-2 against Sumana Kalyanasundram. But that's where the Nuggets' highlights ended.
     Anastesia Opata, a first-team NAIA All-American for Xavier in 2008, lost 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 to Florina Nosca in a No. 1 singles rematch of last year, in which Opata prevailed 6-3, 6-4. Yuliem Dominguez at No. 3 and freshman Marian Lang at No. 5 both had 6-1 first-set victories but neither won a match.
     In the men's dual Terry Richardson defeated Abhaya Prakih 6-1 in the first set of No. 2 singles, but Prakish rallied with 6-2, 6-2 victories in the final two sets. Cameron Knowles forced a third-set super-tiebreaker against Rohan Shetty at No. 6, but Shetty won the super-tiebreaker 10-8.
     Neither Xavier team won a doubles match. The closest was at men's No. 1, where freshman Steffen Giles-Osborn and senior Mike Green lost 8-6 to Prakish and Radu Ionescu.
     The Nicholls State women are 2-0, and the men are 1-1.
     Xavier will travel to Baton Rouge, La., next Saturday for men's and women's duals against another NCAA D-I opponent, Southern University. In 2008 the Rush won 8-1, and the women won 5-4 against Southern.