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     NEW ORLEANS — Farah Baklouti won her final 11 games in singles Sunday to clinch for NAIA No. 3 Xavier University of Louisiana in a 4-3 women's tennis victory against No. 15 LSU-Alexandria.
     Baklouti trailed 4-1 in the opening set on court three against Niamh Packer, then rallied for a 6-4, 6-0 victory that gave the Gold Nuggets (3-1) an insurmountable 4-1 lead in the dual.
     "I knew going in this was going to be a tough match," said Alan Green, XULA's head coach and director of tennis. "We had to overcome some adversity very early in this match, but our team played tough. I'm very proud of what we did today with everyone's effort, especially Farah being down 4-1 in the first set before reeling off 11 straight. She made an adjustment and never looked back."
     Three of XULA's four nationally ranked singles players won. On the first court No. 11 Angela Charles-Alfred defeated Milijana Milojevic 6-3, 6-0. On court two No. 14 Lailaa Bashir beat Darija Mladenovic 6-0, 6-1. Baklouti is ranked 28th.
     XULA won the doubles point. Yi Chen Pao and Baklouti, ranked 14th, defeated Patricia Perez — a 2019 NAIA second-team All-American — and Patricia Martinez 6-0. Then Charles-Alfred and Bashir, the 2019 small-college champion and ranked No. 1 in the NAIA, rallied from a 3-2 deficit to defeat Marie Cool and Mladenovic 6-3.
     The Gold Nuggets have won 26 of their last 29 duals — including an active streak of 12 straight at home — against ranked teams.
     LSUA, which won 7-0 Saturday against No. 12 Loyola (New Orleans) at XULA, is 2-1. The Generals will play host to XULA Feb. 29.
     XULA's women and men will not compete the remainder of the week. They'll return to the court Feb. 24 — that's Lundi Gras, the next-to-last day of Carnival — in 1 p.m. matches at Hattiesburg, Miss., against William Carey, whose teams are ranked fourth in the NAIA. The XULA men are ranked second.