Tuesday, 03/31/2009

NEW ORLEANS -- The Xavier University of Louisiana men's tennis program has reached additional new heights with the release of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's first NAIA singles and doubles rankings of the 2008-09 season.

For the first time in the program's history, three Xavier men are ranked in singles -- Terry Richardson is 20th, Mike Green is 31st, and Steffen Giles-Osborn is 42nd. The doubles team of Green and Giles-Osborn is 20th and is the first Gold Rush tandem to be ranked.

Richardson, a senior from Ellendale, Ga., and Stockbridge High School, is 14-6 in singles. Green, a senior from Port St. Lucie, Fla., and Barnabas Christian Academy, is 7-6 in singles. Giles-Osborn, from Atlanta, Ga., and Westlake High School, is 12-5 in singles and the first Gold Rush freshman to be ranked since Miroslav Vukicevic in 2003-04.

Giles-Osborn and Green are 6-5 in doubles.

Richardson's ranking is his highest as a collegian and his first since April 21, 2008, when he was 35th. Green returned to the rankings for the first time since 2004-05, when he was 13th in singles and 14th in doubles in the final ITA list while playing for Savannah Art and Design.

The Gold Rush -- whose No. 13 position in the NAIA coaches poll is a program best -- and the 15th-ranked Gold Nuggets will travel to NCAA Division I Alcorn State for 2 p.m. dual matches Saturday. Those matches originally were scheduled for the University of New Orleans Tennis Center, but the venue was changed by mutual agreement.