NEW ORLEANS — Sixteen months ago, Charlene Goreau succeeded Nour Abbes as the top singles player for Xavier University of Louisiana women's tennis. Tuesday Goreau joined Abbes as the only Gold Nuggets to earn first-team NAIA All-America as a freshman and sophomore.
     Goreau — from Toulouse, France, a graduate of Raymond Naves School and a business sales and marketing major at XULA — was 15-12 in singles and 11-14 in doubles in 2016-17. She led the Gold Nuggets to five victories against ranked opponents and a No. 7 national team ranking.
     Goreau concluded her second season of a collegiate competition last week with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory against Indiana Wesleyan's 19th-ranked Rachel Bottorff in the round of 16 at the NAIA National Championships in Mobile, Ala. Although Bottorff was 15 places ahead of Goreau in the most recent ITA rankings, Goreau was 2-0 this year against the IWU senior.
     Goreau is the fourth Gold Nugget to make first-team All-America twice. Abbes, Kourtney Howell and Anastesia Opata also did it. Nine Gold Nuggets have earned a collective 16 All-America berths (first or second team); six have accounted for 10 first-team spots.
     This is the fifth straight season that XULA produced at least one first-team All-American apiece on the women's and men's teams.