Saturday, October 25, 2014

Soifer leads the way for Xavier in Big Easy Classic

Nikita Soifer
NEW ORLEANS -- Xavier University of Louisiana senior Nikita Soifer advanced in the main draws of men's singles and doubles Friday during the opening day of the Big Easy Tennis Classic at the University of New Orleans.

Soifer, a two-time NAIA All-American, defeated Louisiana-Lafayette's Will Huyton 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the flight-1 semifinals. Soifer will play UNO's Tino Kranz at 9 a.m. Saturday, with the final scheduled for 2 p.m.

Soifer and Tushar Mandlekar defeated Southern Mississippi's Wen-Po Tseng and Tarun Surat 8-5 to reach the doubles quarterfinals, where they'll play UNO's Christoffer Appelgren and Luis Albuquerque at 8 a.m. Saturday.

All other XU players were eliminated from the main draw, with a few still alive in the consolation brackets.

"It was a decent day for us in this well-rounded (NCAA) D1 tournament," XU coach Alan Green said. "We had our moments out there and competed well with the mid-majors.

"I was particularly pleased with Nikita Soifer. He didn't play well in regionals last month, but in this tournament he is playing better. I'm looking for big things from him this year."

Xavier won 7-of-12 men's matches. Of the Gold Nuggets' nine matches, the lone victory came from redshirt freshman Dasia Harris in a 6-1, 6-0 decision against Loyola's Lauren Rosales in the flight-3 singles consolation quarterfinals. Harris awaits the winner of a match between XU's Sha'Nel Bruins and West Virginia's Yvon Martinez.

Still alive for Xavier in the men's flight-3 singles consolation bracket are Vincenzo Ciccone, a 6-2, 6-0 winner against Jackson State's Marko Milosavljevic, and Adam Albrecht, who beat Loyola's Anthony Zaleski 6-1, 6-0. Ciccone and Albrecht will play quarterfinal matches at 8 a.m. -- Ciccone against Troy's Austin Racine and Albrecht against Jackson State's Richie Agarwal.

XU sophomore Nour Abbes -- the NAIA women's singles champion and "Super Bowl" runner-up at the USTA / ITA National Small College Championships -- was not entered in this event.

This is Xavier's final competition of the fall semester. The tournament is scheduled to conclude Saturday.

Results:  Men    Women

Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director

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