CANTON, Ga. — Xavier University of Louisiana lost 5-4 Friday to unbeaten Reinhardt in a matchup of top-10 NAIA men's tennis teams.
     The Gold Rush (11-5) will stay on the road and play NAIA No. 13 Point at 2 p.m. Saturday in Valley, Ala.
     Santiago Perez and Ghassan Alansi won in doubles and singles for XULA. Shaikh Abdullah also won in singles.
     Mario Belloni Tomas and Jordi Puig won in doubles and singles for the Eagles (10-0).
     "This was a great match that we were theoretically two games away from winning," XULA head coach Alan Green said. "If we get those two games it keeps the other guy on the court for a third set, and they were wearing down. But great job by those guys. (Coach) Jennifer (Pourchier) has a great team this year. She has done a great job at Reinhardt."
     Perez and Alansi gave XULA a 1-0 lead when they defeated Martin Mendoza and Sam Alexander 8-5 on the first doubles court. But Reinhardt scored the next five points — including a pair of 9-7 doubles decisions — and clinched when Pau Pujadas defeated Pierre Andrieu 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 at No. 6 singles.
     Abdullah, playing singles for the first time in three weeks — an injury sidelined him — won on the fourth court when Bruno Juarez retired with Abdullah leading 6-2, 4-6, 4-2. Then Perez beat Mendoza 7-5, 6-1 on the first court, and Alansi defeated Alexander 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 on the second court.
     The Gold Rush missed on a couple of opportunities. Abdullah and Gabriel Niculescu trailed Tomas and Jordi Puig 6-3 on the third doubles court, rallied to take a 7-6 lead, then dropped the final three games, including Abdullah broken at love in the 14th game. Andrieu led his singles match 4-0 in the first set and 4-2 in the second.
     Despite its unbeaten record and lofty team ranking, Reinhardt had no singles players or doubles teams in the most recent Oracle ITA NAIA rankings, which were announced March 14. Reinhardt, like XULA, reached the NAIA national semifinals in 2018.
     The Gold Rush are 0-7 in the last 10 seasons against second-ranked NAIA teams. All those matchups occurred on the road.