PENSACOLA, Fla. — Xavier University of Louisiana's Mariia Borodii climbed out of a proverbial West Florida sinkhole Saturday to complete a come-from-behind 4-3 women's tennis victory against the Argonauts.
     The XULA men lost 6-1 to West Florida, but Gold Rush freshman Santiago Perez earned his 16th consecutive singles victory.
     XULA head coach Alan Green said he witnessed "vintage Mariia Borodii" as the 2018 ITA NAIA National Rookie of the Year clinched with a 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) victory against Jennifer Rink.
     "It was the wildest match of the year and one of the wildest I've ever been involved in," Green said. "Just about every court was getting into disputes, so it was a huge mental challenge. And the greatest of the challenges came down to Mariia in the third set."
     Borodii trailed 5-4 in the second set, 5-3 in the final set and 5-1 in the tiebreaker, then "she gathered herself and reeled off six consecutive points," Green said. "That was the match."
     The Gold Nuggets (17-5, ranked third in the NAIA) lost the doubles point and trailed 3-1 but tied the score when Lacee Ancar beat Valeria Mantilla 6-4, 6-3 and Farah Baklouti defeated Diana Vlad 7-6 (10-8), 6-3.
     XULA's other point came from Angela Charles-Alfred, who won 6-1, 1-0 when Gabriela Araujo retired because of injury.
     The Gold Nuggets won at West Florida for the second consecutive year. The Argonauts (17-8) are ranked 15th in NCAA Division II and were just two weeks removed from a 4-3 victory at Saint Leo, then and still ranked third in D2.
     Perez, No. 2 in the ITA NAIA singles rankings, kept his win streak going and improved to 17-2 for the season when he defeated Serdar Bojadjiev, NCAA D2's third-ranked player, 6-2, 7-5. Perez has five victories against ranked players during his streak.
     The Gold Rush (14-8, ranked seventh) lost the doubles point but won a court when Ghassan Alansi and Pierre Andrieu — paired for the first time in nearly a month — prevailed 6-3 against Robin Rafaitin and Pedro Cordeiro.
     The eighth-ranked UWF men (18-5) won at home for the 40th time in their last 42 attempts.
     It was the regular-season finale for both XULA teams. There is no conference or unaffiliated group end-of-season tournament, so the Nuggets and Rush will rely on their resumes to earn at-large bids to the NAIA National Championship tournaments. Qualifying teams — 24 men, 24 women — will be announced April 29, then seedings and brackets will be revealed the following day. The tournaments will be played May 14-18 in Mobile, Ala., at Copeland-Cox Mobile Tennis Center.