Sunday, 01/31/2010

NEW ORLEANS -- Well-established program met a newcomer Sunday. Not surprisingly, the well-established program prevailed.
Xavier University of Louisiana's women's tennis team extended its Gulf Coast Athletic Conference winning streak with a 7-2 victory over Loyola at Tulane's Goldring Stadium.
The Gold Nuggets (1-1 overall, 1-0 GCAC) extended their winning streak in GCAC regular-season duals to 54 in a row dating to 2002. The victory came at the expense of a Loyola program which was playing its first intercollegiate match since the 1990s.
Xavier didn't lose a set in any of the seven completed matches but defaulted the No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles matches because the Nuggets had only five players available.
NAIA All-Americans Anastesia Opata and Angelina Callis won their singles matches and teamed for an 8-0 victory over Claire Landry and Katherine Beargle at No. 1 doubles. Colleen McArthur, Carmen Nelson and Melissa DeLoach also won singles matches fore the Nuggets, and McArthur and Nelson teamed for a doubles victory.
Both the Xavier women and men will return to action Saturday with GCAC duals at Mobile, Ala. XU will play Mobile at 10 a.m. and Spring Hill at 2 p.m. Nearly all of Xavier's conference matches are scheduled to be played before March 10.