Nicholls State defeats Gold Rush 5-4, Gold Nuggets 9-0
March 14, 2012

Results:  Men    Women

     NEW ORLEANS — Shayann Vaezzadeh defeated Viktor Svoboda 6-2, 7-5 at No. 3 singles Wednesday to clinch Nicholls State's 5-4 men's tennis victory against NAIA No. 9 Xavier University of Louisiana at City Park/Pepsi Tennis Center.
     Nicholls defeated Xavier 9-0 in the women's dual.
     The Gold Rush (9-3) got singles victories from Zach Taylor, Steffen Giles-Osborn and Sean Richardson, but Taylor and Giles-Osborn won after the Colonels (6-6) clinched. Taylor and Loic Didavi saved three match points to defeat Sidharth Sivakumar and Palash Tiwari 9-8 (8-6) at No. 1 doubles.
     Nicholls won each of the other two doubles matches by the minimum two games. Damjan Despotovski and Roy Knight rallied from a 7-6 deficit to defeat Svoboda and Corey Huggins 9-7 at No. 3.
     "Today was a good loss, if there's such a thing, for our men," XU coach Alan Green said. "Our guys played extremely hard and almost came away with a win against a Division I (NCAA) opponent that's been ranked in the top 75 this season.
     "I was proud of the effort, especially after a long week when we played six times in seven days."
     It was the second consecutive 5-4 loss for the Gold Rush since a nine-dual win streak, the program's longest since the start of the 2001-02 season. It also was the XU men's first home loss of the season.
     The Gold Nuggets (2-13) did not win a set and lost their fourth in a row. Former XU recruit Parija Maloo, a junior at Nicholls (4-7), defeated the Nuggets' Kourtney Howell 7-5, 6-4 at No. 1 singles and snapped Howell's five-match win streak. Marie Aubert defeated Amanda Materre 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2 to end Materre's seven-match win streak and extend Aubert's streak to nine.
     "Nicholls' women are pretty good from top to bottom," Green said. "We were overmatched. However, I did think Kourtney played pretty well against Maloo."
     Both Xavier teams will play Saturday at City Park. The Gold Nuggets will play Louisiana Tech at 11 a.m., and both teams will meet city rival Loyola at 5 p.m.